Return to Life
by Rosabell
Summary: After the Exile left, the Lost Jedi were rebuilding the Order when Atton began dreaming of her. Soon afterwards, an unknown spacecraft crashlands in the Khoonda Plains. Inside holds the key to solving the mystery of what became of the Exile…please review!
1. Chapter 1

Return to Life

Chapter 1

He had been dreaming of her a lot, lately. Sometimes she was a mere shadow, her features murky and blurred. He only knew her because the dream willed it so, and she passed before his fingertips like a wisp, close yet just out of reach. Sometimes she would even talk to him, her voice steadily like a murmuring brook, but as incomprehensible. He never remembered what she said.

Other times, however, she was clear and defined before him, her face as young and ageless as the last time he saw her. It was at these times that she seemed even more surreal than before. Her hair was down, long and streaming, silky and soft and accentuating her maidenhood. Instead of the Jedi Robes or combat uniforms she wore before, she was clad in a floating white gown, and her whole body would glow with an ethereal light. Always, in the background, a barren wasteland would stretch behind her, so that she seemed to be a young elfin spirit dancing in the midst of death and destruction—the one source of hope in a world of despair.

In these visions, she would not speak, nor even look at him. In the past she walked with the heavy, measured steps of a Jedi Knight who shouldered the burdens of millions. In the dream, however, her steps were light, and she danced to the music of the Force, her movements as elegant and graceful as any Twi'lek's, perhaps more so because they were filled with power and beauty. Still, there was a mourning to the movements, as if the Force were grieving through her for a loss that had many years to heal, but remained ever-present, scarred and worn. Her light steps were superficial, belying the heaviness within.

He would reach out to touch her, to pull her to him, but then he would wake, and she was gone, nothing but an illusion.

This was happening for several weeks now, which was strange because Atton had not dreamed of her for years. After yet another one of those nights, Atton sat up, rubbing his face, listening to the wildlife outside the window. Once he sat up on his bed, he could hear voices and footsteps up and down the corridors. The new Jedi younglings were already up, their young voices high and cheery in the morning.

_" Come on! It's morning! You know that Master Shan's rules say that we have to get up by dawn!"_

_Bastila._ Atton thought. It was not bad enough that her rules had to infect Coruscant—they had to stretch all the way to Dantooine.

_" I couldn't sleep for _hours _last night…"_

_ " You can make up for it by sleeping tonight. Come on! We have to go get breakfast before all the good stuff is taken!"_

The new Jedi younglings were cute. Atton did not always think so, but the years warmed him toward them, those little things that were so full of curiosity and innocence. _She _had found them endearing at least, always patiently teaching them. Perhaps some part of her ached to be like them, so full of life, without enough understanding of the world to realize what it means to feel pain and loss.

Sometimes Atton would watch her and wait, hoping that she would confide in the agony she suffered in the past, but she never did. He should have known better. She never complained, ever, not about the Jedi Council or what they did to her, not about Krreia and her betrayal, and not about the unreasonable expectations of Carth Onasi when he asked her to go after Revan in the Unknown Regions. The others were content to see her as she appeared: the impenetrable goddess, ever strong, ever beautiful, ever wise. Yet Atton had seen her when she first felt the Force again, that bright light seeming to emit from her very form, and he watched it dim slowly over the years as her spirit aged even when her body remained youthful and beautiful. The Mandalorian Wars, followed by ten years of exile, followed by the Sith Triumverate, could not have passed without leaving its marks. He still reeled from occasional flashbacks to that Jedi who had saved his life back in his assassin days, and sometimes when he looked at the face of the woman who captured his heart, he could see the shadow of Malachor V and all its ghosts lingering in those clear orbs.

She was too good for him. Always was. When the time came, she departed without a word, and Atton did not chase after her. She had died a long time ago, after slaying Darth Traya, and perhaps even before, along with all her men on the doomed planet before her exile. Atton was not good enough to revive her, nor did he know how to convince her that this galaxy still needed her, that this universe still needed her. She was too weary to find a new purpose, and went to the Unknown Regions to seek the ultimate peace. Neither Jaq nor Atton could stop her from doing that, and so neither did.

Still, part of him wondered if things would have been different had he confessed, had he let her know for certain that there was someone whose existence depended on her, who would put her joy before his own, who would have given his very soul for her—regret was not the Jedi way, however, and Atton could see why that is. The Force moves the way it would and the past is the past. Those children running up and down the halls were the future, and as Jedi Master—

The door suddenly slid open. " Well! I see that _someone _hasn't been enforcing the rules around here!"

" Mira?" Atton blinked before he even fully recognized her. Over the years the redhead barely changed. Her hair looked even redder than he remembered, however, and was much longer, past her shoulders. " What are you doing here?"

" And thank you, for the warm welcome!" The redhead strolled in. " For your information…well, my hyperdrive was dying. I was on my way to Coruscant from Telos when it started sputtering. I pulled over to Dantooine before it could explode or something, and figured, my _dear friend _Atton Rand is here, wasn't he? Why, I ought to pay him a visit!"

" You could have commed." Atton stood, picking up his robes to change.

Mira silently gestured at the comm., which was blinking. Once she directed his attention to it, he could hear it beeping.

" I assumed you weren't in your room, or something. I called the Enclave and they allowed me to park. Imagine my surprise when I learned the esteemed Master Rand was not even awake yet. Though honestly, these things are deafening. How did you sleep through it?"

_I was dreaming about Adel,_ Atton thought wryly, but did not voice it.

" I'm sorry. I haven't been sleeping well these days. It is good to see you." He even gave her a brief hug, something that startled her.

" Whoa, handsome, not that I'm not also glad to see you, but are you alright?" She then seemed to take a good look at him. " You really weren't sleeping well lately, were you? Someone needs a lot of stimulants right now."

Atton did not reply immediately, moving over to the comm. Mira had called three times, about one hour ago. She did not leave messages, though of course, she probably felt no need to.

" Well, give me a minute to change." He said to her, rubbing his face wearily. " I'll be with you in a minute."

There was a pause. Rather than breaking it with words, Mira silently stepped back out. Atton knew he was not being the most hospitable, but still disoriented from the dream, he was hardly in the shape to care. He splashed some water in his face and looked in the mirror.

_" Good morning, Master."_

_ " Good morning, younglings. Have you eaten yet?"_

_ " No, we just got up."_

_ " You should go get something to eat then."_

_ " Are you going to stay this time?"_

_ " Ah, we'll see what Master Rand has to say about that. Run along now."_

_ " Yes, Master."_

Atton leaned over the sink, water dripping from his face. He should shave. Signs of a beard appeared around his cheek and chin.

_You could craft interesting designs on your face._ Adel once joked to him. _Men look completely different, depending on what kind of beard._

_ Too much work, _Atton had replied. _Cover up all this goodness? Please. The world needs more of this face, you know. Besides, this way I look young._

He rubbed his face again. He really had changed a lot over the years. The Atton Rand who journeyed with the Exile across the Outer Rim would never even consider leaving behind a beard.

Mira was waiting outside. He should not take too long.

" Ah, good," The ex-bounty hunter murmured when he palmed open the door, " Still look like you need stimulants though."

" Thanks," Atton returned dryly, stepping out into the hall. The enclave was filled with life now, children's voices ringing from every corner, and older padawans, few as they were, loudly lecturing for the little ones to behave.

_" No lightsabers in the halls! Turn those off, now! No sparring in the halls!"_

" You've turned this into quite the place, Atton," Mira grinned as the two of them walked down the richly furnished corridor, " Where did you find all these Force-Sensitives?"

" I have a knack for that."

" So I see. Why haven't you been sleeping well?"

Atton did not answer immediately. Mira turned to him. She looked gentler with longer hair, Atton noted. There was a motherly look about her now. She looked less vibrant, less dangerous, almost, but that was just appearances. At heart, Mira was still that compassionate yet lethal warrior, her skills honed by her rough childhood and early experiences on Nar Shaddaa. If nothing else, her tongue was as sharp as ever. Her wit did seem to temper lately, after Adel left for the Unknown Regions. In the past, she never hesitated to jab Atton with a remark that would startle him, but recently she was much more careful around him.

" Atton," She began, " We've been through a lot together, but I understand if you don't want to talk to _me _about it. Maybe Bao-Dur, or Visas…well, maybe just Bao-Dur. You have to talk to someone. You've been handling Dantooine on your own for the most part. If you want off this rock, I can contact Mical and the Council can send someone else."

Atton stared at her, fairly certain that he looked as lost as he felt. He wanted off Dantooine, but he wanted to look for Adel. It was stupid, not just because she specifically told all of the Lost Jedi to refrain from coming after her, but also because he had no idea where to begin looking for her. If he left Dantooine, he had no idea where he would want to go. Certainly not to Coruscant, where there seemed little remaining of the woman he knew, and he would have to submit to the ice princess Bastila or the doe-eyed Mical who had gotten much less doe-eyed over the years.

" I've been…dreaming about…_her,_" Atton finally managed to confess. " Not visions. Dreams. I haven't dreamed about her in years—she stayed firmly out of my subconscious, I guess, but now she's invading every hour in the night. It's…unnerving."

" Maybe it's because you're letting go," Mira said softly, her eyes filled with sympathy. " Maybe you never dreamed of her before because you were always thinking about her, and now that you're thinking of her less and less, she's wandered into your subconscious instead."

Perhaps. Atton did think of Adel less and less. Not by choice, of course, but there was so much to do. So many younglings to teach, padawans to initiate, knights to assemble and organize. The Jedi Exile's last legacy is the resurrection of the Jedi Order by the Lost Jedi she had trained, and Atton had nothing else to care about. He dove into the reconstruction like a thirsting man after water. Already, Adel was becoming a ghost of the past.

" I don't know." Atton sighed. " I've never seen her in a white dress before. Or dance quite like that. It was like…she was dancing to the Force, rather than physical music."

" You lost me." There was that dry wit again. " You sure you didn't drink too much juma? She _would _make a good dancer though. And she would look good in white. You do realize that wedding dresses tend to be white on many planets, right?"

" She wasn't wearing a wedding dress. You can't dance in those anyway. They're so big. The most you can do is shift from one foot to the other. That wasn't what she was doing."

" Alright, well," Mira folded her arms, " It's your dream, and I won't dig for the details. Are these dreams recurring?"

Atton thought for a moment. " Not exactly. But—" He hesitated again, " There was just…such a profound sense of loss. I don't know. They're dreams. I don't think they were visions."

Mira looked at him. " You need to move on, Atton," She murmured softly, " The rest of us have. She left us without intending to come back, you know. The Unknown Regions was meant to be her resting place. It is just too dangerous there."

Atton nodded numbly. " I know. It's just hard. Jedi aren't allowed attachments, but Adel was one of a kind, you know?"

The ex-bounty hunter smiled. " Of course. It takes a one-of-a-kind type of person to convince me to work with an idiot like you."

" You're the one to talk." Atton snorted. " Sometimes, I swear, I wonder if Kreia didn't somehow merge with you after she died. You both took great delight in tormenting me. Force knows when all of the sudden _you'd _fall to the Dark Side. If you do, I'm getting Mical to go after you."

" In the hopes that I would kill him for you?"

" Doesn't hurt."

" You're awful, Atton. The Dark Side is no laughing matter, and Mical has been nothing but understanding all these years."

" He's only understanding because he knows I can kick his blonde butt if he angers me enough." Atton suddenly realized he was smiling again. Mira seemed to notice the same thing.

" I don't know. I hear he's brushing up on his combat skills on Coruscant at the training rooms. Might have to book a match to see if you're right."

" Tell him to come to Dantooine. If he dares."

Mira chuckled. " I'll do that!"

Feeling a little more like himself, Atton then asked, " So how long do you intend to torment me this time, Mira?"

" Getting tired of me already?"

" Don't you know? You wear the patience of the wisest of Jedi Masters."

" I do try. For your information, I can't leave earlier than when I get my hyperdrive up and running. Though if you're not capable of keeping the children in line, I'll just comm. Coruscant and tell them that I'm here to do your job for you."

" Merciless as always, Mira. I'll get one of the padawans to look for your lousy hyperdrive. In the meantime, I'm starving. Have you eaten yet?"

" And what would I eat, dear Master Rand? You might be considered handsome around here, but I'm telling you, looks don't fill an empty stomach, not to mention the folks on Dantooine should _really _see the rest of the galaxy in order to modify their standards."

" Ouch. Harsh. In that case, let's go get some breakfast. I'll meet you in the cafeteria after I get a padawan to run your errand."

Mira chuckled as she skipped backwards away from him. " Will do!"

Just as Atton turned around, however, he felt a pulse in the Force, and the sense of impending change. Mira had also stopped; she had sensed the same thing.

" We're getting an important visitor." Atton observed.

" That we are. Who and where is this visitor coming from, though?"

Atton was taking out his commlink. " Not sure, but I get the feeling he or she will be arriving on the Khoonda Plains." He dialed the frequency for the administrator. " This is Jedi Master Atton Rand from the Jedi Enclave. I am contacting you in regards to a visitor we will be receiving shortly. Please prepare for an arrival of a spacecraft on the Khoonda Plains."

_" Acknowledged, Jedi Master Rand."_

" Looks like breakfast will have to wait." Mira muttered.

" You can still go eat if you want."

" No, I'm coming with you. I felt the Force shift as well, and…" She hesitated, " I don't feel good about it."


	2. Chapter 2

Return to Life

Chapter 2

" So what has blonde-boy been up to lately?" Atton asked as they headed up the walkway out of the enclave.

" He's in the middle of a trial. Do you remember Atris?"

" Atris?" Atton tripped, " That witch is still alive?"

" Atton, do you refer to _every _woman you meet as a 'witch' or is it just women who are older than you?"

" Does it matter?" Atton tugged at his robes, " Besides, Atris was even more of an ice princess than Bastila—she literally had an ice cave on Telos. Fitting that both ended up being on the Council at some point. The Council seems to be filled with stuck-up snobs of Jedi. Looks like even among the Order the same rule applies: the way you ascend the ranks is by being a complete schutta."

" Well, then, I'm surprised that _you're _not in the Council yet."

" Very funny." Atton returned dryly. " So is the trial about Atris, then? Took them long enough. I was wondering when someone's going to take care of her."

" She wasn't exactly easy to find. After Adel let her go, she stayed in the Academy for a while and then disappeared."

" How did they find her then?"

" The will of the Force, some may say. It brought her back to the Telos Academy. Others say that she turned herself in once the Council stabilized. I wasn't privy to that information."

" You were just on Telos, weren't you? Could've asked."

" Yes, but right now trial isn't _on _Telos, it's at Coruscant—keep up, would you? The trial is at the Coruscanti temple, so Mical is at the Coruscanti temple, and Atris is also at the Coruscanti temple. Make sense now? You really need some caffa, at least. I don't think you're awake yet."

Atton turned on the path. " Well, the trial doesn't _have _to be on Telos for you to learn what is going on. When's the trial finishing?"

" I don't know. They're still gathering evidence. Though she fell once, that's not really up for argument. The question is whether she has truly redeemed. Last I heard, Mical was thinking about sending _her _to the Unknown Regions after Revan and Adel. It seemed only fair."

Atton was silent at this.

" Though unlike Revan, who redeemed because he lost his memory and was able to start from scratch, Atris was redeemed mostly because Adel spared her life and knocked her perception of the universe off-kilter. Return is return, I guess, but folks back at Coruscant are scratching their heads, wondering if they could trust this turn of events. The Dark Side is apparently pretty hard to just shrug off."

Atton halted.

Mira suddenly seemed to realize what was wrong. " I'm sorry." She shook her head. " I didn't mean it that way."

" No. You're right." He sighed. " Sometimes I can still feel it. It's gone for the most part, a shadow of what it once was, but it clings to you, ready for the slightest sign of weakness. It's a living thing, possessing you until you're no longer you anymore, and the last shreds of your identity are consumed and lost. The Dark Side is not something you shrug off. It's a taint that can never be washed, a stain that is ever-present on your being. Redemption…is only the will to consistently resist its call, every second of every day of every year for the rest of your existence."

The ex-bounty hunter touched his arm. " Even the best of us fight the Dark Side, Atton. It's written in our being, even if we never touched it. You don't have to demean yourself. Out of all of us, you were the best, and Adel loved you the most."

Atton was ready to stop talking about this. He started walking again.

" Sending Atris out to the Unknown Regions seems like a good way to settle things. After holing herself up in the Telos Academy with her Sith holocrons while the rest of the galaxy falls to pieces, now she gets to make up for it by confronting the True Sith in person."

" It's what they call poetic justice, I believe."

The air suddenly vibrated as they left the grounds. Atton looked up at the sky to see a flaming wreck descending at a lethal speed.

" Son of a—"

The earth rocked like a wave upon water and both Atton and Mira were thrown back as waves of heat exploded into a cloud of fire and smoke. The grass in the plains lit up instantly and the black fog cloaked the air. Coughing and choking, Atton reached for Mira, but she was crawling to her feet already, sputtering out the dirt that had gotten into her mouth.

Men were running out from the towers, ready with hydropumps to spray at the fire, but they had a while to reach the spacecraft and the two Jedi were much closer.

" Pah!" Mira spat out, " Is anyone in there?"

Atton shut his eyes. " I don't sense anyone." This could mean that the occupants were already dead.

" What kind of ship is this?" Mira asked, as the two Jedi made their way cautiously toward the flaming wreck. " I don't recognize this model at all!"

" Well, I think the galaxy's big enough that there would be a few models we've never seen before!" Atton used the Force to pull away part of the hull. He glanced inside and saw a still form of what looked like a Jedi on top of a table leaning against the tilted wall. Sparks danced over a fried console in the front. He used his lightsaber to chop out of his way.

" Human male," Mira recognized, as Atton pulled the body out. The face was completely black and the hands were charred and covered with ash. " What kind of Jedi crash lands like that?"

" Don't know, don't care." With one body out, Atton jumped inside to look for more.

" Atton, this thing might blow up any minute. We should seriously just get out of the way especially if there's no one in there left to save."

" I'm not trying to save anyone! There could be a droid here that can tell us what happened!"

" Assuming the droid isn't fried like that console you just stabbed through!" Atton was ignoring her, however, and Mira heaved an annoyed sigh before she began pulling the corpse along. " Wonderful, Atton! Leave _me _to do the unpleasant work!"

" Stop complaining." Atton did hop out then. " Ship's too big for me to search like this. We'll have to wait for them to hose this thing down before we look further."

Coughing and spluttering, the two dragged the one corpse they found out of the way as the soldiers arrived with water. The administrator was among them, and Atton gave her a wave as he helped Mira carry the dead Jedi toward them.

" Administrator Adare," Atton greeted, " No survivors in the crash. You just have to worry about putting out the fire."

" Very well, Master Rand. Master Mira," The adminstrator nodded, " Thank you for your assistance."

" I didn't do much." Mira shrugged. " There isn't much we _could _do."

" Who is this? Are there any more bodies inside?"

" We're not able to identify him, nor search the ship any further. I would like to use your comm; I would like to call back to the Council and inquire if there were any Jedi in this area, see what happened."

" Of course. You may use any one of the communicators in the building. My men will take care of…him."

Atton laid the dead Jedi down as Mira went ahead toward the Khoonda administrative building to make her call. He went to help the other men water down the wreckage until Mira returned, a frown on her face.

" What?" Atton asked her.

" No Jedi in this area, except you and me, and Deesra once he gets back—and he's not human. If this ship came from one of the other regions, it's without the Council's knowledge."

" Why can't these kind of things ever be _easy?_" Atton complained, glancing up at the sky as if to look for answers there. " Just you wait. About two hours later, after we've already painstakingly identified this man and the ship and what it was doing, we're going to get a call from Coruscant explaining that the padawan in charge of looking this up was distracted playing pazaak and then proceed to articulate everything we just spent the last two hours figuring out."

" Atton, no one at Coruscant plays pazaak, and this is serious, because what if this Jedi had been on the run? Someone might be attacking him."

_" Careful!" _The men called out. The ship was still smoking a little, but they had watered down all the flames within reach, and were preparing to enter the wreck to search for clues and put any more fires out. _" The hull's a little bit unstable! Watch your step!"_

" Around Dantooine?"

" Why not? There's an enclave here. That makes this planet a potential target, if you're not careful."

" The only folks who would attack a planet because there are Jedi younglings on it are Sith. The Sith happened to be localized to the Unknown Regions thanks to _our _efforts. If anything, this guy might have crashed because his hyperdrive sputtered like yours."

" That still doesn't explain why he landed here. _I'm _the only one dispatched to this area, other than you—and you don't have a ship, which means I'm the only one with a good reason to crash around Dantooine."

The men were suddenly shouting at each other.

_" What is in there? What's going on up there?"_

_" Everyone alright in there? Hello?"_

" What now?" Atton turned around, scowling. Some of the men were craning their necks, looking into the hole at the hull.

_" Say something! Are you three alright in there?"_

_" What's going on?"_

He could sense three life forms moving about in the ship, and nothing seemed worse for wear, so he was not too concerned. They were huddled around something though, and not answering the calls of their fellows outside. Someone knocked at the hull with his knuckles; Atton recognized him as a new captain.

" What's happening?" Mira asked as the two Jedi Masters made their way back to the ruins of the ship.

" They're not answering the comm." Said one of the men, before speaking into the link in his hand. " Do you copy? Do you copy? Repeat, do you copy?"

There was a burst of static. _" We copy. Sorry everyone. Just got a bit of a surprise here. Quite a beauty, though, and totally looks alive. We're bringing her out. Get ready; it's a big one."_

Atton glanced at Mira, who stared back at him. " Alive?" He repeated, " There's no one alive in there."

" No living humans?" The redhead drawled, " Or no living anything?"

" Jedi Master," The young man who had answered Atton's earlier question interrupted, " Forgive me, sir, but they say we need to make the hole in the hull wider, and we were wondering if you could use the lightsaber, since our tools might damage whatever it is that they're sending out."

" I'll do it." Mira stepped forward, igniting her blade casually. " Stand back!" She shouted inside, and cut at the hull effortlessly. The pieces fell out, and she stepped back. " Let's see what all the excitement was about."

From the hole poked the edge of glass, under which was gold. Then the rest slid out, and the men caught, carefully shifting it through the hull and whistling at the same time. Though the ship was wrecked and the Jedi with her had been burned to crisp, the coffin and its contents remained pristine and untouched. Atton caught sight of feet, pale and fair and delicate, encased in thin cloth shoes that were white and faintly translucent. It was the white skirt of the dress that made his heart seize, though. It was as beautiful as a wedding dress, embroidered with glimmering silver threads, but the clear details did not hide the fact that it was _the _dress, _the _gown she was wearing when she was dancing to the music of the Force—then the coffin tipped, and the rest of the queen—or goddess—came into view. Blossoms covered the bed, white and softly pink, and adorned the long silky hair that laid loose about her like a flowery veil. On her head was a simple headdress made of white and gold, and in her hands, clasped between her breasts, was a lightsaber. Her face was peaceful, as if merely slumbering, and if there had been any life energy in her, one would expect her to open her eyes from all the jostling.

" What the—" Mira gasped, " That's—how did Adel—"

Atton was too shocked to voice his own surprise. His heart raced and he could barely catch his breath. _No…no, not possible…_

His legs folded under him and he fell to his knees, as the coffin bearing the Jedi Exile emerged from the wreckage.


	3. Chapter 3

Return to Life

Chapter 3

Atton sat, staring stupidly at the coffin, while Mira paced back and forth in front of the comm.

" We're not going to leave Dantooine until we figure out what caused the ship to crash. If you want to take a look at her, you're going to have to come here."

_" We have the latest technology on Coruscant."_

" Don't care! If you're so tough, bring your tech here."

Mical's image rubbed his neck in thought. _" Give me a visual. I don't understand. You're saying that lightsabers can't cut open the…the lid?"_

" Well, we didn't try very hard," Mira admitted, " Because we don't want to ruin…but Atton and I don't sense any life signatures. It looks like she's…but it was really hot inside. Everything else apparently melted, but the coffin was fine, even though it looked like it was made of glass, which should melt at much cooler temperatures than the stuff around it."

_" Maybe it wasn't made of glass."_

" No kidding, genius!" Atton suddenly exploded. " And no! We couldn't free her with a lightsaber. Whatever this thing is, it doesn't melt! Are you happy now?"

_" Peace, Atton. I meant no offense."_ Mical actually looked as shaken as Atton felt, which was considerable coming from the normally serene Council Master. _" Please, let me see her."_

" There's nothing to see." Mira turned so that Mical could get a good look. Her voice was harsh, like she was trying her best not to cry. " She's there. Lying. Not moving. There."

_" What the—what is she wearing?"_

" Atton's wedding dress." Mira muttered under her breath.

_" What?"_

" We don't know." Atton snapped. " She's wearing a white gown. White. Gown. We don't know where that headdress came from, and we can't exactly find _out_, because we can't open this stinking coffin!"

_" Are those flowers?"_

" Yes those are flowers!" The blossoms had shifted due to the jostling from both the crash and afterwards, and some of the petals stuck to the lid or piled onto the sides.

_" Was she married in the Unknown Regions?" _Mical sounded incredulous.

Atton started laughing. " That's hilarious. She goes to fight the True Sith and ends up marrying—who would she marry? Revan? And then when she di—he stuffs her in a coffin in her wedding dress and ships her here with some unknown Jedi. _Does that make any sense?"_

_" Alright, look, this whole setup looks like…look, I think the coffin is preserving…her. So don't try to open it. She's probably as safe as she could possibly be in there. Not to mention, there are Jedi techniques which allow a Jedi to hide his or her Force signature and appear dead. This technique would allow them to appear dead for all intents and purposes, except they never decay especially if they are preserved well enough."_

" Oh really?" Atton was about to tear his hair out. It was either that or start crying, and he was _not _bursting into tears in front of Mira or Mical—_especially _not in front of Mical. " Well, you'd think a freaking _crash _would _wake her up!_" He could _not _handle any false hope right now!

_" They have to be revived, Atton." _Mical patiently explained. _" Returned to life. She looks in good condition. Look, there must be a reason why she's in such a strange coffin. Someone's trying to protect her, probably the Jedi who was with her. I'll gather the others and we'll head to Dantooine. I might be a little late though; the trial is commencing tomorrow morning and I have to be here for it."_

" Why?" Atton could not believe this. " You honestly care more about _Atris?_"

_" I have to be fair, Atton. Watch over her, and don't let anyone know who she is."_

He cut the connection before Atton could ask why.

" Well, at least we don't have to ship her to Coruscant, and I have an excuse to stay and harass your students." Mira sat down next to Atton. For a moment, the two Jedi Masters stared at the figure before them. Adel looked as young as ever, though her cheeks were colorless and her lips pale.

Atton had trouble believing that she was here. He wished dearly that she were still out there. That way, he would not have to cope with the irrefutable evidence of her death.

" Mical's probably right." Mira's voice wavered noticeably. " It looks possible. If anyone would know such an obscure Jedi technique, it would be Adel. We might be able to revive her."

" Stuff it." Atton snapped. He could not deal with such encouragements. " She's gone. I can handle that. What I can't handle is being treated as if I can't. I've lost people before. She was dead a long time ago. I've come to accept that, just like the rest of you."

This time, Mira exploded as well. " Look, you're not the only one who cares about her. Right now Mical is rounding up everyone who ever worked with us: Bao-Dur, Visas—they're coming to see _her_, and they're hoping that there is more than just a body for them to visit. And frankly, so am I. If _you _can't handle hoping, that's _your _problem, but don't rob the rest of us of ours!"

_You have to be less selfish, Atton,_ Adel once remonstrated, _And consider that everyone has different ways of handling the same thing. Just because they're reacting differently doesn't mean they don't feel as you do. Be a little more considerate._

Atton slid his chair back and laughed. It was an ugly sound, even to his ears, but he could not stop. _Be a little more considerate! _Did Adel ever consider the feelings of her disciples when she left for the Unknown Regions? Did she ever think that they would miss her, that they would need her? Of course, one could never tell, nowadays. Atton was setting up the enclave on Dantooine, Mira was reviving the Academy on Telos with Brianna, Bao-Dur and Mical were on Coruscant, Visas went back to what remained of Katarr, and Mandalore was doing whatever Mandalorians do these days. It felt like the galaxy forgot the Exile, and the reason why Atton remained on Dantooine was because the administrator of Khoonda had vowed to preserve Adel's legacy. Out of all the planets and worlds, it felt like Dantooine was the only place she was even remotely remembered.

Adel would not care. She thought she had no place in the galaxy. She was ready to leave, perhaps long before she actually did—but the galaxy was not ready to let go of _her. _Atton was not ready to let go of her.

" Whoever this person is," A man's voice broke him from his reverie, " He's not in the systems."

" Is it possible that he's Revan?" Mira asked in a subdued tone. She had left his side at some point to speak to the tech.

" Only if this Revan wiped himself from the systems, or if he never visited a dentist."

" Why can't these things ever be easy for once?" She lamented, echoing Atton's earlier exclamation. " Well, maybe we can backtrace the sample to close relatives, or something."

" A lot of data was lost during the wars, due to cybernetic warfare."

" We're in no hurry. Thank you for your time."

" No problem, Master Mira. One other thing: we recovered a droid from the wreckage; it's pretty beaten up, but with a good tech we might be able to salvage something from it."

" Maybe Bao-Dur can." Mira turned to Atton. " Shall I go take a look at the droid and leave you staring at her, or are you coming with me?"

Atton was not leaving Adel alone in the room, where her…coffin could get stolen. " I'm staying here," He said in a subdued voice, his throat raw like he had been sobbing for hours even though he had only been laughing for half a minute, " Tell me if there's something."

" Sure." Mira reached toward him and squeezed his shoulder. " Hey," She said gently, " She's back. Worse comes to worse, at least we can give her a proper funeral, like she deserves."

Atton swallowed. It was cold comfort.

_I feel awful._ Adel once sighed. _I was so…I couldn't stand being there anymore. I wasn't strong enough._

_Kreia betrayed you._ Atton had said awkwardly. _And she killed three masters in front of you before just leaving you there. You were able to make it back here. I'd say you were strong enough._

_I didn't even bury them._ Adel shook her head. _I should have. But they were husks, worse than empty. They were voids in the Force. I—I got sick. I had to get out of there._

_It's okay._

_No. It's not._ Adel shook her head again. _We have to go back. I have to bury their bodies. Whatever their faults and their mistakes, they were still Jedi Masters, and I was one of the Order…we have to go back and bury them._

_Not now._ Atton urged. _You're not…you're not well. Not right now. Don't worry about burying them. Besides, isn't it sort of common, dying out on the field, unburied?_

_Doesn't mean it's preferred._ She had looked away. _I should…_

_No. Don't go. Not now. They're dead anyway. They wouldn't care if you wait a little longer._

_I guess not._ Adel looked at him, eyes glassy with tears_. _She blinked and suddenly the orbs were dry. _I need to meditate._

With a sense of vertigo, Atton was pulled back to the present. Adel was no longer dressed in her Jedi robes. She was clad in white, like a new bride, or a beloved queen. Whoever brought her back had cared for her, had known her worth, sealing her in this coffin that could not even be pierced with a lightsaber. Maybe there was some sort of stasis in the coffin, technology from the outer regions beyond known space, preserving her body for eternity, immortalizing her.

Fitting. Eternal youth suits her. She was too beautiful to be buried.

_I am losing my mind._ This was all a dream. Atton rubbed his eyes and laughed miserably. Of course this was not a dream. In his dreams, Adel was alive and awake, sometimes speaking to him, sometimes not. She was never like this, so cold and still. He pressed his hand onto the lid over her where her hands held onto her lightsaber like a scepter. Her lightsaber was always so graceful. His own had been clunky, like himself. All of the sudden, he wanted to reach inside and take her weapon, if only to have some memento of her.

_Adel…_He bowed his head and sighed. _Adel. Adel. Adel._ He hardly knew what to do with himself. Memories, long buried, surfaced against his will. Adel in the cockpit, Adel eating in the mess hall, Adel in her underwear when he first met her, Adel welcoming the first little ones to the Enclave on Dantooine.

_Can you teach me how to play pazaak?_

" Atton," Mira walked in, violently breaking him out of his reverie yet again, " That droid's T3. You remember T3? Really fried, but I'm pretty certain Bao-Dur can get it up and working again."

" Oh." Some part of Atton was working on automatic, because his mind was still in the past and hardly aware of what he was doing. " That's good, I guess. We can figure out what happened from the memory archives."

" Your students are waiting in the Enclave. I gave them a call, telling them we were stuck here. Do you want to go take care of them, or should I go instead?"

" Give them the day off," Atton replied, the words already out of his mouth before he decided, " They could use a break, and it's not fair for me to force you to do my work."

" Should I tell them, or should you?"

A few minutes would not hurt. Adel was dead. She would not care.

" I'll tell them," Atton said softly. He could not bring himself to move though. After waiting for a moment, Mira left, and Atton stopped trying.

He touched his hand to the glass. It was probably just as well that he could not feel her hand. The living Adel only touched him in order to adjust his pose, her hands warm upon his wrist and arm. This Adel would be cold. Because she is dead.

He leaned his head on his forearms and shut his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Return to Life

Chapter 4

Khoonda showed itself trustworthy, not only because of the diligent attention they devoted to guarding the body of the Jedi Exile, but also their ability to keep this a secret. No one else on Dantooine were aware of her presence, though whether this was important remains to be seen. After the second day, pressured to return to the students at the enclave and reassured by Khoonda's competence, Atton left Adel with Mira for the first time since she arrived.

It felt a little surreal, going back to the Jedi. The young children, as well as those becoming adults, kept greeting him with the words " Master Rand". They referred to him as such for the past few years already, even before Adel left, and Atton had that much time to grow accustomed to the name. After seeing Adel's body, though, it suddenly occurred to him that he would never have been referred as such if he had never met the Jedi Exile. The thought made him feel lost, like he did not belong among the Jedi, and he wandered through the corridors as if in a dream, ignoring the concerned looks cast his way.

" Master Rand?" One of the new knights asked, " Are you alright?"

_Atton, _Adel had said, _Are you alright?_

_I'm fine._

_You seem distracted._

" I'm—I'll be fine. A lot of crazy things happened the last two days. How is everyone? I see this place hasn't blown up since I left."

" Well, not _literally._ The children were a bit freaked out though, didn't know where you were."

" I had no idea I was so loved." _Especially since I don't really like children._

" I think it's more along the lines of being naughty while you're gone. To their great chagrin, there are some responsible knights here, along with some responsible padawans."

_Just how many of these folks do you plan to train? _Atton had demanded, as Adel gently led the would-be knight into the arena.

_He's smart,_ Adel had replied. _And we have a whole Order to rebuild. If you're concerned about my health, you should train some as well_,_ to lessen my load._

The young man from the memory swirled into the physical world, into the knight standing in front of him. One of Adel's later students, though among her last. After she had suggested teaching to Atton, the others eagerly took it up, especially Mical. Adel, weary in spirit, let go of the reins to her students. She began training alone, perhaps preparing to fight the True Sith in the Unknown Regions. She still loved children, but for most of her time on Dantooine, she never taught them again.

" Master Rand?"

" I'm fine." Atton nearly winced at echoing the remark from his memories. " Just remembering old times. Well I'm back to pick up the pieces, or what's left of them."

_Are you listening to yourself? Atton Rand, a _teacher_ to the little runts?_

Adel had smiled. _Why not? You would be a good teacher. You taught me very well, after all._

_Right. I taught you how to play pazaak. I only happen to be the best pazaak player in this galaxy. This is different._

_How so?_

_Don't give me that! Don't go all Jedi-cryptic on me!_ She had started laughing, _And what are you laughing about? I wasn't kidding! I'm a lousy Jedi and everyone knows it!_

She had abruptly stopped laughing. _Atton, listen to me._

He could not help but obey, even though he expected something like ' You are not a bad Jedi' or ' You underestimate yourself'. All things he was ready to ignore, to brush off at their very beginning—

_We helped a lot of people in our adventures together. Habat, on Telos, the poor refugees on Nar Shaddaa, Khoonda on Dantooine, the Queen on Onderon, but none of that is as great a help, or as influential, as what we do now. Teaching these younglings the ways of the Force, how to be Jedi. When we help others we solve the immediate problem. When we _teach _others, we solve all of their problems for as long as they live, and perhaps even beyond, if they choose to teach it to more people. That is the blessing of being a teacher, Atton. There is nothing like sharing your knowledge with those around you, especially a child, because in that child you see everything that you hope to become, and the knowledge that once you are gone, this child will remain and carry your knowledge with it. Everything else you did can be undone, but so long as your students still walk the galaxy, you are ensured that one legacy. And that is enough, because it is the only legacy that matters._

" I'm sorry." Atton rubbed his face, realizing he had spaced out again. " I'm hit with a relentless series of flashbacks."

" Back to the good old days when the Sith were running around?" The knight joked.

" Something like that." Atton summoned a smile, even though his heart was not in it. " Was actually thinking about when I first started teaching. Force, was I a mess."

" You were scary. Everyone preferred Master Mical or Master Mira." The knight remembered. " Is it a coincidence that both of their names start with the syllable 'Mi'? And neither use their last names?"

" Maybe."

" You're no fun." The knight laughed. " 'There's no such thing as coincidences', remember? Master Shan would be all over me for that comment."

" Master Shan." Atton found himself laughing. _Ohhh Bastila. Now she gets to go head to head with Atris. _All they needed was to resurrect Kreia and put the three in a room. " She's…quite a character."

" _You're _the one enforcing her rules."

" You do not mess with Bastila Shan. Kick Sith around? By all means. Annoy the Republic? No sweat. Make things difficult for the rest of the Jedi Council? That's great. Mess with Bastila Shan? You'll wish you were dead."

_I have no quarrel with you, Bastila,_ Adel had said, _But I have no intention of continuing this conversation. Our destinies remain separate. That is all you need to know._

_You _will _answer my questions! _Bastila had demanded.

_I have no obligations, to you or Revan,_ Adel had replied, her voice non-threatening, but authoritative. _You have no hope of understanding what I know and what I've seen, and I have no desire to make you. We are done here; I must go train. Mical will show you your way out._

Unless you are the Jedi Exile, who has experienced things far worse than anything Bastila could come up with. Of course, now Adel is even more fearless, because she is _dea—_

" Master Rand?"

" I'm doing it again, aren't I?" Atton shook his head. " Tell you what, I'm going to go meditate. You can take over classes again for today."

" Yes, Master Rand."

They parted ways, and Atton went outside to the garden in front of the center of the complex. The sun was shining merrily on the vegetation, and he sat down among the flowers, heart heavy and tired. This was the place where Adel had met the three masters. Where they had tried to rip the Force from her for their own selfish ends, and where Kreia had murdered them in her defense. There had been one redeeming quality to the old witch; she had truly loved Adel, even if that love had been twisted by her psychosis.

_I was her student._ Adel had told him, weeks after Traya's downfall. _I was what she had hoped to be, once upon a time, and still hoped to be at the very end. She died knowing I was still here. Her legacy lives as long as I'm here. A Sith's greatest legacy was a Jedi._ She smiled a little. _It was a good death for her. I understand now._

How did Adel die? What kind of death did she have? Atton buried his hand in the grass and tugged them out. It was either that or tear out his own hair, which was not very Jedi. _Not fair. Not fair. _It was not fair that Revan and Adel suffered the same fate when Adel was so much better than Revan. It was not fair that the old witch died a good death, cradled in the arms of her favorite and most beloved student, when Adel had died alone. Though was she alone? He did not know anymore. She certainly did not come to Dantooine alone. And her face was so peaceful—she must have died painlessly. Or perhaps her training was such that she still felt at peace despite being in agony. Who was the Jedi? Was he really a Jedi—there were so many questions that Atton did not even want to begin searching for answers.

It was not fair that Adel died at all. She should be retiring on some luxurious planet after everything she had done for the galaxy. She should be honored by her students and colleagues and remembered. Those padawans and knights walking around in this garden—they should be mourning too, but right now none of them knew that Adel was here, that Adel's _body _was here. Force, most of them probably did not even know who Adel _was._

They should raise tall statues in her honor, and even that would not have been enough.

He tugged out another patch of grass. He should really get to meditating. Releasing, his, _ah, _despair into the Force. Funny, how the blackness seemed separate from his being, like it belonged to someone else, and yet remained attached to him through a link that was frequented randomly, every time he spaced out. There seemed no sense to the crushing weight in his chest. He always thought that sorrow would feel more…_obvious._ Not this obscure, vague sensation that nothing in the galaxy mattered anymore, that he really wanted to just sleep a lot because he was so tired for some reason.

He lied down on the grass staring upwards at the sky and listening to the murmur of voices and footsteps all around him. He could cry here and no one would know, and by the Force, he wanted to cry, but his eyes remained dry and he felt drained and empty. All the tears in the world would not bring her back.

_There is no death, there is the Force._

_Screw you._

Adel's laughter rang in his mind.

" Atton?"

Atton sat up. It is nighttime already? The sky was black and glittered with stars overhead. Two knights were looking down at him from above. Deesra Luur Jada stooped over him.

_Well, I'm in top form these days aren't I? _Atton thought wryly, wondering how he managed to fall asleep for so long, and mostly dreamless too. " Hi Deesra."

'Hello.' Deesra blinked at him. ' I leave for a week and you're this tired already?'

It took a moment for Atton to understand him.

" Hi Deesra." He said again.

' You are out of it.' The twi'lek said in his language.

" Hi Deesra."

' Come along, let's get you up.' The twi'lek heaved Atton to his feet. ' Mira was trying to contact you. For some reason none of the students anticipated that their Master Rand would be snoozing on the grass in the gardens.'

" I can't imagine why." Atton rubbed his head to relieve the headache that formed.

' Well! It's nice to know that you currently remember more phrases than 'Hi Deesra'."

" Very funny. Did she say what she wanted?"

' Mira? No, just that she wanted you to go to the administrative building. Can you make it there on your own, or should I accompany you?'

The twi'lek Master was a good friend ever since Adel settled on Dantooine, but Atton had the sense he should keep her arrival private, exclusively to her disciples. " I'm good. Thanks for getting me. I've been a little out of it lately."

' I can see that. Be careful, and hurry back quickly.'

" I will."

Night on the Khoonda Plains was quiet, and Atton crossed fearlessly over the fields to the administrative building. He saw two additional ships, which meant there were at least two visitors to Dantooine. Stretching out his senses, he recognized Bao-Dur and Brianna along with Mira in the room where Adel slept. The building was lit with merry lights, in contrast to the peaceful dark outside. He almost did not want to go in.

"—These are hieroglyphs—" Brianna jumped when Atton palmed open the door, " Atton—"

" What are hieroglyphs?"

" Oh, the stuff under the lid." Mira pointed.

Atton blinked at the coffin. Sure enough, there was a line of hooks and barbs circling the coffin. He thought those were designs, albeit bad ones, and had not really noticed them, being too preoccupied with the woman they encased.

" Great. What hieroglyphs?"

" Uh…"

" Sith hieroglyphs." Bao-Dur's serene voice made the statement all the more ironic.

If Atton had not already started sitting down, he would have fallen. " What's Adel doing in a Sith coffin?" _There answers the question of whether or not she ever met the True Sith in the Unknown Regions._

" I guess it depends what the hieroglyphs say." Brianna replied, reaching for her bag to take out her datapad. Her hands trembled a little, belying the steadiness of her voice. " I made a point not to understand the Sith too much, for obvious reasons. There were a lot of Sith holocrons at the Academy, though, and I think I can provide a rough translation with the programs in this…" She scanned one side of the coffin. The datapad beeped when it finished, and Brianna skimmed over it.

" I'm going to have to work on this."

" What's wrong?" Mira asked.

" It's not…comprehensible right now. I'll have to refine it a little. It's an old language and not very well understood, so the program's not very good."

" Well can you give us an idea?" Atton asked impatiently.

" How about _you _read it out loud," Brianna thrusted it at him, annoyed.

Atton snatched it and enunciated, " ' Here on white to lie to touch to harm greatness on evening Force's to come stars the birth of.' What the _Sith—_"

" As I said, needs work." Brianna snatched her datapad back. She pushed Mira and Bao-Dur aside in order to scan the remaining sides of the coffin.

" She's very well-preserved," Bao-Dur said softly. " I don't detect any decay at all. Is it possible that she's in stasis?"

" She's probably in stasis," Atton said dispassionately " Doesn't mean she's alive."

" Don't bother." Mira interrupted. " Atton's too scared of false hope. Let's just be professional about this, because so am I, to be honest."

" Right." Bao-Dur laid a hand on the glass lid for a moment. " I've never seen her this way before. It looked like whoever put her in put a lot of thought into it."

" She came here with a Jedi."

" That doesn't mean they would do this." Bao-Dur gestured. " Still no results on who the Jedi was?"

Mira shook her head. " They've been trying to request permission on the more obscure records, but so far, no go on those."

" How long before Mical arrives?"

" I don't know." Mira blinked. " He hasn't contacted us."

" He's working on the trial on Atris." Brianna finished scanning, her voice nonchalant. " I personally hope they send her to the Unknown Regions."

" No love lost for your former Master?" Atton could not resist drawling.

" She was never actually my master." Brianna frowned. " You know that."

" I do." Atton felt a little chastised. " But you did have to put up with her for a long time."

" That's history." Brianna also laid a hand on the lid. " Master Ri did more for me than Atris ever did."

Atton sat back, looking at his fellow disciples. At least they all shared a love for Adel. The knowledge relieved the heaviness in his heart somewhat. He was not alone in his grief.

" I'm going to go figure out why she's buried in a Sith coffin." Brianna sat down and began punching code into her datapad.

" I'm going to see if I can fix T3." Bao-Dur stepped back. " Also if the ship's computers could give us any clues."

" Most of it's fried." Atton told him.

" So was T3. We have to try." Bao-Dur laid his hand on the coffin again. " She's safe in there," The zabrak said, more to himself than to anyone else, " And maybe that was the point. If one day we come up with technology to revive the dead, she'd be able to hop out."

A lump formed in Atton's throat. " If such technology is possible, Bao-Dur, you better make it fast. Otherwise, I think it would be more of a punishment than a reward for her."

" Hm." Bao-Dur shook his head sadly. " I'm going to work on the droid."

Mira plunked down in the seat next to Atton. " I guess it's just you and me." She said quietly. " Do you have to go back to the Enclave?"

" I should, but apparently Deesra's back. He can take over." Atton reached for his commlink. It occurred to him that he was really quite pathetic, unable to leave Adel's body for more than a day. " Hi Deesra. Listen, I'm staying at the administrative building…"


	5. Chapter 5

Return to Life

Chapter 5

The next day, the investigators concluded, with measurable certainty, that the ship crashed because it was shot down. With what was the question. Atton broke from his vigil over Adel to speak with them, leaving Mira to watch over her.

Who shot down the ship, how, and why became a lot more important than resurrecting the fried droid, so Bao-Dur was soon called over to examine the wreck. Adere was especially anxious because none of the detectors picked up the ruined ship, let alone whatever had been shooting at it.

" Parts of the ship exploded, probably due to the beam hitting one of the engines and igniting it. There's evidence of blaster shots here, a particularly hard hit over here," The technician gestured, " And then there's this."

Metal, melted together to fuse. From the crosses, it looked like the pieces were melted with a lightsaber. The Jedi had been trying to seal something, whatever it was.

" A cannon," Bao-Dur recognized. " This ship was shot with a cannon."

" What kind of ships carry cannons?" Atton wondered out loud.

" Big ones."

" Oh really, I couldn't guess," Atton drawled sarcastically, " What sorts of ships would carry both cannons and a cloaking device?"

" There aren't any models I know of." Bao-Dur looked thoughtful. " There's no sense in having a ship with cannons and a cloaking device. Something that big has no need for stealth."

" True."

His commlink beeped.

_" Atton, Mira's recovered some footage from the droid. You might want to join us." _Brianna informed him.

" Got it." Atton looked at Bao-Dur. " Well, what do you know? Mira figured it out without you."

" I did most of the work." Bao-Dur said in a light tone, coupled with a slight smirk.

" Sure, sure. Anyway, we'll get back to this later. Good work," He told the tech, before swinging his body around. " That's enlightening. Adel was shot down. Glad we decided to keep her here instead of risking a trip to Coruscant."

" Whoever shot down that ship might still be around. The detectors didn't pick them up the first time, they might not pick it up this time either."

" True." Atton nodded. " Except I don't sense a presence, or a danger, in the Force. Do you?"

Bao-Dur did not reply.

T3 looked like a mess, but Mira was transferring the memory core to a large holoplayer for better resolution.

" Just in time," She remarked when the two males entered, " Turns out Bao-Dur left off only a little bit."

" Let's see what it has to show us."

Atton suddenly felt apprehensive. " Am I going to like what we're about to see?" What if they saw her moment of death? He was not sure he could bear that, even with his training.

" How am I supposed to know?" Mira huffed. " We won't know until we look." She tapped the key.

Blue static fizzed, before breaking out into a clear, crystal image of Adel. The sight took Atton's breath away. She was so…_alive_, in the footage. Her eyes were open and she moved with all the mannerisms of the Jedi Exile he knew. Part of him longed to jump into the footage and be there with her, to enter this clear evidence that once upon a time, Adel was more than just a body in a coffin.

She had her hair completely loose and seemed to be wearing a fancy nightgown. While it made her look stunning, she looked distinctly wrong in it. If Adel was not quite the epitome of a Jedi, she did carry that humble feel they all shared, and a tendency toward plainer robes. There was far too much embroidery on this nightgown, even on the holoplayer to be something the Jedi Exile would choose to wear.

_" T3, how did you get in here? No, keep quiet," _She then glanced behind her, as if checking to make sure they were not seen or heard, _" I'm alright so far. I don't think they want to hurt me. Yet, anyway. I can't understand what they're saying, and the Force feels muted here." _She wiped at her eyes, a motion that, while subdued, looked distinctly distressed, especially since it was Adel. _" They took away my clothes and lightsaber. I don't even want to think about how."_

_Yeah._ Atton thought with an anger that was strangely quiet yet undeniable. _I don't want to think about that either._

_" Look, T3, have you found Revan?" _This was followed by a series of beeps. Adel answered this with a sigh, rubbing her face.

The Jedi in the room glanced at each other. Adel had never looked so worried, even when facing Darth Nihilus.

_" T3, are you able to repeat what you just did? I mean, go back out, and then come back here?" _There was an affirmative beep from the droid. _" Alright. Listen, go find Revan. Tell him _not _to come for me." _T3 apparently protested. _" No. Do _not _come for me. There is a whole organization here, and the Force is so clouded I can't think," _She inhaled, releasing something dangerously close to a whimper, and her countenance folded in as she visibly repressed a sob, _" I can't think. Hold on." _She inhaled again, rubbing her face, _" They're strong, T3. They're too strong for him to just come barging in. The acolytes are easily as powerful as a Sith Lord, and their Sith Lord—I don't even know if I've met their Sith Lord because I don't understand their language—"_ She suddenly jerked, as if she heard something, and went very still. There was a look of sheer terror on her face that none of her disciples had ever seen before.

Five tense seconds passed. She did not move.

Her shoulders finally sagged, and she turned to the droid again.

_" Tell Revan I will try to find out who the Sith Lord is and how to get to him, and we'll communicate through you. _Don't _come for me. Do you hear? You will remember to tell Revan this. Tell him…tell him I'm alright. Tell him that the Sith don't want to kill me." _T3 beeped. _" I don't know why. But they're feeding me." _Another beep. _" No, they…they're coming, hurry, hide!"_

The footage went askew as T3 apparently fled, but the droid sought a hiding place and was able to observe Adel suddenly drop to the floor like a rag doll. Her eyes were open and she blinked rapidly, but her body was completely still.

In walked a shadow, so black he seemed to fill the whole place, even on the footage. There were others, and they soon surrounded her, blocking her view_. _They spoke in a guttural, hissing language. The footage did not reveal what they were doing, but T3 suddenly brought up a list of information. Adel's heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, and blood pressure were isolated from the rest. Her heart rate suddenly increased, her body temperature dropped, and her blood pressure also dipped.

Then the footage fizzled out.

The room was silent.

Atton sat down and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his face the way Adel did. Brianna and Mira sought refuge near the wall, while Bao-Dur walked over to what was left of T3 and crouched in front of it, staring blankly.

" So did she find Revan or didn't she?" Mira finally broke the quiet.

" Sounds like they did and got separated."

" We don't know _anything _about what happened from that footage," Atton snapped. " All it did was confirm that she was in the hands of the Sith." _And utterly terrified. _" They had some hold over her that caused her to collapse. Some neural implant?"

" We also know they didn't want to kill her," Bao-Dur added.

" At that point in time!" Atton exclaimed. " Since when were Sith charitable towards the Jedi? They were using her for something, doing something to her, and she's more powerful than any one of us but she couldn't do anything about it!"

" Since when do Sith dress up the Jedi?" Mira broke in. " None of this makes any sense."

" She said the Force was muted there," Brianna said softly.

" It could be the Dark Side of the Force." Atton buried his forehead into his hand.

" I know we make a point of not touching the Dark Side, but I always imagined the Dark Side to be explosive, burning," Bao-Dur looked thoughtful, " I would never imagine it to be 'muted'."

" I've visited Sith holocrons, not much, but it clouds your mind," Brianna replied, " You reach for clarity but it isn't there. Instead you feel smothered, caked in slime, and there is nothing but anger and hatred around you, clawing to get in. Someone like Adel is very pure. Strong as she is, if she spends enough time surrounded by darkness, trapped as she was, she would find the Force hard to reach."

" Enough." Atton stood up. " What good does this do? We haven't learned anything new."

The holoplayer suddenly hissed back to life, causing everyone to jump in surprise. Adel was there again, staring at T3. Her image was much cloudier and more pixelated.

_" It's…I…" _She seemed to have great difficulty articulating her thoughts. Her hair was done up this time, and in fact she wore the same headdress in the footage as she did in the coffin. Her pupils were dilated and her words slurred a little. _" Tell…I…stored everything in the crystal. If it's too late…get me back to the…the," _She groaned, blinking wearily, _" If it's…if it's too late…the crystal…has everything. The light…the light…crystal. My head…"_

T3 beeped in concern. Adel did not acknowledge him.

_" They're…Force…I can't…take me back…to my family, T3. They can heal…if it's too late, tell them…everything is in the crystal…the lightsaber…I can't think…"_

T3 suddenly burst into movement, as if darting away to hide again. Adel once again dropped to the floor. This time her eyes were closed. The Sith shadows approached where she lay. Once again, the image cut.

Silence descended again.

" What was that?" Mira demanded. " What the—alright, I'm done. I'm just—I'm done. I give up. What was that?"

" Everything is in the crystal?" Brianna glanced at Bao-Dur.

Atton stared at the coffin. " The lightsaber crystal," He realized.

The Jedi followed his gaze.

" We need to get that thing open," Mira said unnecessarily.

_Tell them everything is the crystal,_ Atton pieced the words together. _If it's too late, get me back to the…to the Jedi? To her family. They can heal…we can heal her._

The Force washed over him and he suddenly realized what had to be done. He shot to his feet.

" Brianna, translate the inscription on the coffin. The crystal is the key."

" What?"

" We can heal Adel through the crystal in her lightsaber," He explained.

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

" He speaks truly," Brianna said slowly, " Though I am not sure 'heal' is necessarily what it does, but we have to get to the crystal and it will at least reveal something."

" How are we going to get the crystal?" Bao-Dur asked. " We can't even cut the coffin open with a lightsaber. The inscriptions may matter, or they may not. I personally have some difficulty believing that the Sith would carve explicit instructions on how to open their coffins on the lid. If anything, it could be inscriptions meant to keep the body _in._"

Seeing as Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus had both essentially been undead corpses animated by the Dark Side, Atton could see his point.

" It still might give us a clue as to why she's in there," Mira pointed out, " And why she was so important that a Jedi died to transport her back."

Silence, again.

" Brianna can work more on translating," Bao-Dur recommended, " Mira can look through T3; I think I've recovered as much as I possibly can, but there might be more footage at the back that we missed. Atton and I will go look at the ship's computers and see if we can determine who attacked it, or at least when and where."

" It was attacked?" Brianna frowned.

" With blasters and cannons," Atton replied. " How long before Visas and Mical arrive?"

" Visas should arrive soon," Mira glanced at the time, " I don't know about Mical."

" He's on his way," Said Brianna.

" Good. I can ask him to take over my classes."

" Who's teaching them now?" Bao-Dur asked.

" Deesra."

" Oh."

" You should tell the Enclave that the ship was attacked," Said Brianna. " We never know if we might expect company at some point."

" Alright." Atton looked back at the coffin. For the first time, he felt…hopeful. She still looked as youthful as the last day he saw her. From the footage, it was clear that something happened to her, but as long as she was alive…

As long as they get her and the crystal out, they can help her. They were her _family. _She said so.

" Atton?" Bao-Dur called from the entrance to the room.

" I'm coming."

They had work to do.


	6. Chapter 6

Return to Life

Chapter 6

The next day brought a thunderstorm over the Khoonda Plains.

Atton and Mira headed to the Enclave to communicate with the Jedi there, ensuring everything was running smoothly, before heading back to Khoonda. When they arrived, Brianna was taking a break and trying to apply chemicals to weaken the glass lid on Adel's coffin.

"How far along are you?" Mira asked, still squeezing rainwater out of her cloak.

"I know that the coffin was designed for the 'White Maiden'," Brianna tried hammering a nail. The glass did not even crack. "I believe there were some metaphors or titles there, things that would not make sense by itself."

"Did you at least translate one side?"

"I translated half of her foot," Brianna gestured at the hieroglyphs lining along the side, "'The White Maiden lies here', is essentially what these three say, and 'Daughter of the Star', or 'birth of the Star', one of the two. It depends on what was said on the other sides, and this half here." She rubbed her eyes wearily. "I hate permutations. Was never good at math. But this stuff leads to at least a hundred million possibilities in one step. Four different possible terms at least, up to twelve for a single symbol, not to mention the possible metaphoric aspects…it is going to take a while."

"We understand, Brianna," Mira said warmly, giving Atton a warning look.

Atton was not listening. He was staring at Adel's lax features, as he always did whenever he caught sight of her. The sheer anguish in his chest had faded as time progressed, and now he found himself unable to do anything but appreciate how utterly beautiful she was. Is. She looked almost delicate. _No. Not almost._ She looked very delicate, like a creature from a dream, hardly the warrior she was, and yet somehow her loveliness amplified her power. Little wonder that someone like her could capture the nonexistent hearts of two Sith lords.

_Want to talk about it?_

_There is nothing to say. They both said they loved me. That is all._

_But you look troubled._

_I feel…I do feel unsettled. Part of me wonders if…had I not been so ignorant of their feelings, I could have given them a happier end…a happier life._

_They chose their own path. You are not responsible for everyone._

_No, and yet I am. The burden of life is that we are all responsible for everyone else, but we are ill-equipped to handle it. I loved Kreia, and I mourn for Sion, that they should have such pasts that would turn them to the dark. They say that fallen Jedi betray the light, but the more I live, the more I wonder if the Light Side had not betrayed them first. Faith requires reciprocity, or else it becomes blind, and for many who turned, it was not that the dark side called to them, but that they could not find hope in the light._

"…Atton!"

"Master Rand," Brianna said a little snidely, "I hope you are more focused as a teacher, or else I worry for your students."

"Are you alright?" Mira asked. "You were in your own little world over there."

Atton rubbed his forehead. "Right. Sorry."

Brianna and Mira glanced at each other.

"I think you need sleep," Said Mira. "You look like kreth. Those shadows under your eyes makes you look like…ahhhhh, forget it. Brianna's datapad just spat out a reasonable translation for the whole edge here."

"Oh."

"Yes 'oh'," Brianna gestured, "'Here lies the Daughter of Stars; the White Maiden lies here.' Yes, it does redundantly emphasize her lying here, but that's the Sith language for you. So we now know that at her feet are what the Sith regard her as."

_Huh?_

"Daughter of Stars? White Maiden? What in the galaxy does that mean?"

"I'd have to check records, I can remotely access the Telos' database from here later, but there was something I read about regarding a Sith legend that told of the Daughter of Stars. As we all know…hopefully…the true Sith…or the Red Sith, before the Sith Lords we came across, were originally a race of beings on Korriban who were very sensitive to the dark side of the Force. They had a very odd mix of barbaric yet civilized cultures that is very complex. Now, obviously, the Dark Side requires a Light Side, or else it would just be one side and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so among the many gods they worshipped was a single goddess of the Light Side, one that kept the balance, if you will: the Daughter of Stars."

Mira and Atton glanced at each other, and Brianna fell silent for a moment because this bit of information warranted a little bit of quiet musing.

"You know, common religion usually requires patron gods and goddesses to be of the same species as those that exist on the planet. Or a hybrid of multiple species. Why would there be a goddess in their pantheon that's human, if they've never even seen humans until the fallen Jedi took over?"

"Well the Daughter of Stars was originally…the daughter of stars. What do you think are normally daughters of stars?" Brianna asked in a flat tone.

"…Newborn stars?"

"That makes even less sense. They're looking for a ball of gas. Why would they attribute a ball of gas to Adel?"

"Are you trying to be difficult, Atton?" Brianna scowled. "I'm just reciting what I remember, and I'm not even done yet."

"Let her finish, Atton."

"Fine."

"The gratitude I get," Brianna sighed, but at Atton's annoyed look, she went on, "The legend says that from the Light Side was born all the stars, including the sun around which Korriban circled. If you can think of a campfire, the Sith believe that the Light Side is important to life as a spark would be to ignite a fire, but the Dark Side is what allows the flames to continue burning. Therefore, they attributed their origins to the Light Side, but feel the Dark Side is what would lead them to a glorious future, because of its power and ability to grow and conquer. For a long time, they ignored the stars, choosing to embrace their anger and violence, and 'forgot', so they called, the importance of honoring what allows the Dark Side to thrive in the first place. I believe a Sith prophet had a vision one night that the stars swarmed together to create a mortal being infused with light, and this being would come to the Sith in the form of a female Force-sensitive. I'm not entirely clear what else the holocron said, like why this would even happen—I didn't think much of it at the time, but I do believe that the prophet warned that should any harm befall this Daughter of Stars, the spark that ignites the flame will be lost, and the Light Side will withdraw from the Sith. With the absence of light, the darkness that grows upon it will fall. The prophet instructed that this Daughter of Stars must be protected at all costs."

There was another silence.

Atton rubbed his face. "They have a funny way of protecting her."

"I think it's rather brilliant," Said Mira, tapping the coffin, "She's well preserved and on display. If she is kept immortal, so will the Dark Side. It makes complete sense. Except, while I am all for Adel being the epitome of the Light-side Jedi, how the blazing moons did those Sith determine that she is the Daughter of Stars? And what's with the term 'White Maiden'?"

Brianna raised her hands in surrender. "I'm just glad I remember that much off the top of my head."

"So what, they preserve her in a glass coffin that's pretty much impenetrable to anything…go as far as to dress her up in ceremonial garb, keep her in stasis so that no harm could possibly befall her. Then a Jedi steals her body, boards a ship…"

The door suddenly opened.

"Masters," Said the officer who walked in, "We are detecting an unidentified space vessel orbiting Dantooine."

The three Jedi instantly followed him, closing and locking the room behind them to protect Adel and nodding to the guards posted outside the door. The halls were a flurry of activity as security personnel readied for a potential threat. It was not often that spacecrafts should come to Dantooine, since this was a remote region of the galaxy. The Jedi were still grave targets, which meant that this could potentially be a serious danger.

Bao-Dur was already at the communication terminals, arms folded and observing as the personnel dealt with the issue. He did not look up at the three Jedi when they entered.

"Unidentified vessel," Said one of the officers to the comm, "This is air traffic control. You are in Dantooine orbital space. Please state your identity and purpose, or we will resort to military action."

"What's going on?" Atton asked Bao-Dur. "I don't sense anything from the Force."

"The rain seems disrupting communication," Said Bao-Dur, "This is frustrating. We can contact people all the way on Coruscant which requires a few weeks of hyperspace travel to reach, but we can't contact a vessel that's separated by a few rain clouds."

"I don't buy it. Rain's never been a problem before. Either they're not answering on purpose, or something's wrong with their console."

The officer swiveled in his chair. "They're not answering, Masters."

"We are expecting Visas and Mical," Mira pointed out, "Could it be one of them?"

"Wouldn't they answer the hail?"

"The vessel's moving out of orbit, Masters!"

"In or out?" Bao-Dur snapped to attention.

"In. Should I fire on them with the turret towers?"

"Hold fire. How fast is it moving?"

"It's accelerating towards the ground at nine meters per second."

"It's diving," Mira realized.

The four Jedi felt a sudden wave of warning in the Force.

"It's Visas!" Atton dashed out. "She's crashing!"

Behind him, he heard Mira running after, shouting out orders.

"Get a ship ready! Ones with tractor beams! Hurry we only have minutes before she crashes!"

"There's a storm out there!" Cried an officer.

"We know, genius!" Atton raced through the halls toward the hangar. He dashed up the ramp leading to the interior of the ship and ran for the cockpit, flicking at the controls blindly. Mira yelled behind him for the control team to open the doors to the hangar. He had the thrusters pushed on full before the engines even warmed up.

The Force was screaming in warning, and without thinking, Atton was using it, shoving the engines into motion with his mind and willing the wheels to start moving. He was tearing out of the hangar before the doors fully opened, into the perilous weather outside. Lightning sparked between the clouds and thunder boomed. The clouds were so thick they could not see the falling ship, though it was probably still high enough that they would not see it on a clear day.

"Nice," Atton gritted his teeth, preparing himself for some daring maneuvers in order to avoid getting electrocuted. He was cheating a lot, he knew; normally it would take a few minutes for the ship to be both airborne and stable, but if Visas' ship crashes like Adel's, she will not survive.

They launched up into the clouds where all became pitch black. The sensors on the ship detected Visas' vessel, which was falling at a deadly speed. The Force had Atton jerking the controls left and right to dodge threats he could not see, but he allowed himself to be guided, knowing better than to question it. Occasionally he reversed thrusters just in time to see a stream of lightning arch in front of the screen. Thunder vibrated along the hull, and he heard Mira fiddle with the engineering so that more power was diverted to the accelerators.

They broke through the dark into the sunny air, where the sky was bright blue and the clouds were white beneath them. Visas' ship was still above them, and Atton flew up. He had to use the tractor beam to slow her descent so she does not explode upon impact.

Mira ran into the cockpit, flicking on the comm even though there was no good reason to do so.

"Visas!" She yelled, "Visas, do you copy? It's Mira. Can you slow down at all? Visas!"

"Of course she can't answer!" Atton rotated the ship as they finally arched over the vessel, "Something's jamming her console! Turn on the tractor beam, now!" How were they supposed to avoid the lightning? At the very least Visas would be fried!

Mira turned it on, aiming for the falling ship, parts of which were already smoking. Visas was alive, or so the Force told them. There was another ship that was flying below her.

"Bao-Dur!" Mira exclaimed.

The comm beeped. "_Tractor beam!_" It was Brianna, "_We're going to fly under her so she can jump ship to us, but hurry before her ship enters the clouds! She won't be able to dodge the lightning flashes!_"

"Stop talking and get under!" Atton jerked, and the ship felt the pull of the descending vessel. Their own was not much bigger than Visas, if at all, and did not have the extra momentum necessary to stop hers in its trajectory.

"Tractor at max," Mira announced, "Don't break the hold!"

"Lay off, would you? I'm concentrating!" Atton gritted his teeth. He had to be careful; if he pulls up too violently, the beam could snap and send Visas plummeting again.

"Acceleration slowly to four meters per second," Mira read the layouts, "Three meters, holding steady."

"Bao, Brianna, now would be a good time!"

A flash of red slipped through the hatch and dove on top of the second ship. Visas' small figure slid slightly on the top of the ship, but ultimately held on. Mira turned off the tractor beam and allowed it to plummet through the clouds, while Bao-Dur's ship opened the hatch to allow the Miraluka to enter to its interior.

"_Atton, we got her._"

"Saw that," Atton released a heavy breath, palming the controls and gripping the thrusters, "Let's head back. Careful of the lightning."

"_We know, Atton._"

As they dove back to the clouds at a more sedate pace, the redheaded Jedi glanced at Atton.

"Visas was attacked."

"Of course she was."

"Atton, there was no second ship on the screens."

Atton did not bother stating that he noticed this as well.

"I'm still not detecting any spacecrafts around Dantooine."

"No warning from the Force either."

"What does this mean?"

Atton broke through the clouds, and rain once again hammered onto the ship.

"We'll talk about this when we get back."

"It might be too late."

"We can't chase ghosts, Mira," Atton sighed, as thunder boomed again, "And whatever attacked Adel—and Visas, is obviously not coming in for a landing. We'll have to wait until Visas is debriefed."


	7. Chapter 7

Return to Life

Chapter 7

"I saw it as soon as it emerged out of hyperspace." Visas suddenly hissed in pain as a medic smoothed a kolto patch over a burn on her shoulder. Bao-Dur and Mira had gone to oversee further scans and scouts that were sent up to search for whatever attacked the Miraluka, though none of the Jedi harbored any hope of success. "It was a strange vessel, its presence muted, and as far as I could hear, it did not register on the scanners."

"Even though it was right in front of you?" Atton asked. His comm beeped and he answered it with an annoyed "What?"

_'What's this about a crash?' _Deesra's speech sounded a little garbled over the transmission.

Something occurred to Atton then. "Wait, if A—" he stopped himself from saying Adel's name, "If Visas' ship was fired down, and the one before, how come Deesra didn't run into this thing when _he _landed?"

_'Atton!' _Deesra snapped. _'Jedi at the Enclave are asking questions and I would appreciate some answers!'_

"I'll update you when I know myself, you schutta," and Atton ended the transmission.

"That was not very civil," Brianna reproached.

"Bite me," Atton drawled, choosing to refrain from the alternative, filthier version of the remark. "So this ship, it was right in front of you when you exited hyperspace?"

"Based on the—" Visas hissed again as another kolto patch was smoothed over her forearm, "On its presence, yes, it was at most two hundred meters away."

"That's close."

"Was it moving?"

"No."

"It shot you at point blank?"

"Did it shoot you immediately?"

"No," Visas replied, "I tried to make contact with Khoonda first, but the signal was jammed. The ship did not fire."

"When did it fire?"

"When I tried to make contact with it, it did not respond, but it tried to pull me in with a tractor beam. I opened fire on it first, in order to get it off, and that was when it started firing."

"Why didn't Deesra crash? In fact, why didn't you and Bao-Dur?" Atton wondered. "You two didn't see any ship floating about did you?"

"No, but we never tried to send transmissions. Both of us were close enough to the planet that we simply announced our ETA before the trip and dove straight into the stratosphere. Khoonda never asked any questions as far as we know, and we landed without trouble."

Atton took out his comm and entered the frequency.

_'What?'_ Deesra answered, mimicking Atton's earlier acknowledgment.

"Deesra, when you last returned to Dantooine, did you notice any ships hanging out in orbit?"

_'What?'_ This word was uttered in a different tone.

_Guess not. _"Did you have to send transmissions to Khoonda before you landed?"

_'Yes. Wait, no. We had to stop before arriving at Dantooine because our engines were failing. I asked Khoonda to identify close stations and told them I will arrive soon. What's this about?'_

"Thanks Deesra. Will let you know." Atton ended the call. "So all three of you broke protocol, and none of you saw a ship hanging out in orbit."

"None of us felt what Visas felt either," Brianna added, "Can you still sense its presence?"

"Yes," Visas replied. "Whatever attacked me masked its presence very well in the Force. I am merely experienced in using Force vision to identify my surroundings, or else I would have missed it as well."

_How convenient,_ Atton mused, _That the one person who could actually identify the vessel is also physically blind. _

On the other hand, it was curious that Visas, a Jedi who was not hindered by normal sight, was the only one who could detect the vessel…

"Think about it," Atton broached to Bao-Dur later, as the Irodonian typed on the keys in the main control room, "There must be _something _there, right? Stealth generators only work so well, especially on ships big enough to carry cannons. Unless there was nothing to cloak. Hide in plain sight. It wouldn't register on the scanners, and folks would be capable of arriving right in front of it without realizing what it is."

"An asteroid, Atton?" Bao-Dur pressed a key, "I don't know. It's a little far-fetched, if you ask me. We should wait and see what the scouts report before we come up with any theories."

"How is it far-fetched?"

"Well for one thing, how did they get on said asteroid? If they arrived on other ships and dropped people and cannons off, the embarking ship should still be detected by the radars here. If the ship's too large, the cloaking device would not work as well."

"Not if they're small, Bao. Small ships can have cloaking devices. They can have multiple trips to load all their cargo, and settle for the wait."

"To what purpose, Atton?"

"To get Adel."

Bao-Dur finally straightened and folded his arms.

"She's their goddess." It felt so strange saying that out loud. Adel should not be a Sith Goddess. It seemed…debased, somehow, even if the Sith might not think so. "They want her back. There's a whole Jedi Enclave down here near where she's staying. They don't want an all out battle in case her coffin gets damaged somehow; sure, lightsabers can't break her out of it, but that doesn't mean their case is indestructible. So they lie in wait for someone to move out. All outgoing transports get shot at."

"This doesn't match all the facts, Atton. For one thing, Brianna, Deesra, and I all managed to land on Dantooine with no problems, and according to you, it's because we never transmitted information. Why would they implement such a selection for the purpose you're proposing? Besides, if they want to reclaim their 'goddess', and I am not sure I actually believe that, to be honest; why would they risk damaging her by damaging the ship? And then shoot it down so that it is out of reach as long as they remain in orbit? Stationing on an asteroid simply isn't practical."

"Master," The officer suddenly swiveled in his chair, "We just lost contact with four of the scouts."

"What?" Atton dove to the radar. "How many scouts were sent out?"

"Twelve, Master Rand."

"Red Aurek, this is Khoonda," Bao-Dur spoke to the transmission, "Do you copy? Red Aurek. Red Besh, this is Khoonda. Do you copy?"

"Master Jedi, three more scouts have disappeared from the scanners."

"All scouts," Atton instantly ordered, "Fold back. Repeat, fold back."

To his relief, several voices instantly repeated, _"Acknowledged."_

"What about the seven scouts?" Bao-Dur asked.

_"Red Cresh to Khoonda! The scouts have been caught in a series of tractor beams! The—"_ Abruptly, the signal jammed.

"We lost him, Masters."

"What is going on?" The Khoonda administrator suddenly entered. "Jedi Masters, I need an explanation."

Atton and Bao-Dur were looking at each other, both minds racing.

"The transmissions," Atton realized, "They target transmissions. We're blind to them; they're also blind to us, until we try to communicate via radio waves."

"Show the area where the scouts disappeared. Give us the range of coordinates," Bao-Dur ordered. When the image and numbers showed on the screen, Bao-Dur nodded. "There it is. That's the area. Launch the ships. We are going to try and rescue the scouts. I will lead the team."

"Bao…" Atton hesitated, "Be careful. Visas said the Force presence was muted…could be more dangerous than it appears. Do not communicate between ships, and do not communicate with Khoonda."

"I know." Bao-Dur nodded.

"May the Force be with you."

When the Iridonian headed out, Atton braced himself over the consoles. The administrator stared at him.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"There is an enemy in orbit," Atton replied grimly. "We have to find out who and where they are."

"Do you have proof?"

Atton spent the next five minutes painfully explaining the situation.

The scanners showed the ships circling around the area where the scouts had disappeared. They kept circling for about ten minutes, something that greatly puzzled Atton, but he did not dare communicate with them in case he attracts the attention of their foe.

"What is going on up there?"

Atton reached out to the Force, but did not receive any clarification.

"I think they're studying whatever it is they found, but I can't be sure."

Suddenly, there was an increase in radiation levels.

"Madam, Master Jedi, the ships are engaging in offensive maneuvers."

"They're attacking," Atton translated rather redundantly, since everyone knew what the officer just said. "Come on, Bao…"

The atmosphere in the control room was tense and apprehensive as everyone watched the screens. What felt like hours was really minutes, before the scanners registered the ships retreating.

"Schuttas," Atton breathed. _What is going on?_

Half an hour later, Bao-Dur was staggering out of his fighter, rubbing at one of his horns.

"That was a close one. They look like several of those meteors that got caught in orbit." He glanced at Atton, "You were right, but it's more than one. They're each the size of about half a moon, and there were cannons on all sides for all of them. They're literally covered. If we call for reinforcements, it should be rather easy to take them down, but as it stands, Dantooine's forces is probably not enough to get them down."

The control room was stunned to silence by this report.

"Are you saying that Dantooine," Adare began, "Is surrounded by battle stations?"

"I don't know how long they have been there, but it is likely they are gathering to prepare to launch a full-scale attack."

"What about the scouts?" Atton asked.

"Too late." Bao-Dur shook his head. "We saw the remains of their ships. If they tractored any, they spat them back out. We did a count, all wreckage accounted for."

Atton cursed.

Visas entered the control room, tugging her sleeve over her bandaged arm. "Any news?" The Miraluka asked.

"We have a bunch of Sith battle stations hovering over Khoonda. How did you all manage to pass by a whole battalion of meteors?" Atton exclaimed at Bao.

"You said you only sensed one," Bao-Dur said to Visas.

"How many are there?" Visas asked. "Their Force signatures were muffled. I must have only seen the one closest to my ship."

"Is Dantooine in danger of being attacked?" Adare demanded. "Is it that Jedi woman you have locked in here? Is she responsible for this?"

"How does an entire battalion of meteors get missed?" Atton ignored her.

"How does a battalion use meteors as stations without registering on the scanners?" Bao-Dur asked Visas. "Are there Sith tricks for this?"

"Anything is possible with the Force," Visas replied, turning around. "It is possible they drew the Dark Side around the meteors to sustain themselves."

"How did they even get there, anyway?"

"That is perhaps not as important," The Miraluka replied, "What is, is that they are here for a reason, one which I think all of us are aware of. The question is what we should do. So far, they only seem to attack those who send transmissions—"

"And those who attack them," Bao-Dur supplied.

"Mical is going to get shot," Atton muttered, "Unless he lucks out like you and decides to stop by to refuel, and then ignore protocol."

"How many battle stations are there?" The administrator cried, "Did you have a count?"

"At least a dozen. It may be wise to seek aid from a fellow Republic planet, such as Onderon."

"We better move, now," Atton snapped into focus, "I need to contact Deesra and get the knights from the Enclave to Khoonda. You'll need Jedi to get rid of the Sith."

"I thought the Sith are gone," Adare glared at him.

"These aren't the Sith you're thinking of," Atton replied, walking briskly out of the control room. He switched on his comm.

"Deesra, we are under attack. At least a dozen battle stations orbiting Dantooine."

"Atton!" Brianna was running to him, waving a datapad, "I figured out how to open the coffin!"

_'What? What battle stations? Are they attacking?'_

"What?" Atton blinked, drawing to a stop. "You can? How?"

"We need her blood to smear outside the crack where the lid is attached. It doesn't say exactly where it opens, but it's somewhere around there—"

_'Atton! What is going on? What's this about battle stations?'_

"Will she be out of stasis if we let her out?" Atton asked, "What if stasis was the only thing keeping her…alive?" _Assuming Adel is alive…_

"If we are careful, we can put her in stasis again to see if we need to put her in a kolto tank and life support—"

_'Atton!'_

"Battle stations!" Atton shouted in annoyance, "What part of that don't you get? Send all available knights to the Khoonda administration! We're launching a defense!"

"Defense?" Brianna blinked. "Against what? Battle stations? Battle _stations?_ There's more than one? But there weren't any when I arrived—"

The alarms suddenly blared.

_"Code red! Red alert! Invasion pending! All personnel to their stations! We are under attack! Repeat, Red Alert!"_

_'I'm sending knights to Khoonda!'_ Deesra announced. _'Whose battle stations are they?'_

"How are we going to get Adel's blood outside if she's inside?" Atton cried in dismay.

"We are under attack?" Brianna dodged as a group of soldiers rushed past them in the hallway, "Who's attacking us?"

"Sith!" Atton answered both Deesra and Brianna, "Or at least that is what we are treating this as! Force, this is confusing! Go to Mira and tell her she is to guard Adel! And then head straight to the plains, we'll be rendezvousing there; Deesra, have the padawans secure the younglings to the emergency exits in case the Sith descend down or start dropping explosives, and while you're at it, send word to Telos and tell them we'll need reinforcements!"

Brianna ran off in a dash, and Atton swept his cloak behind him as he darted outside, where ships were already beginning to take off into the sky. Bao-Dur was already in the air, and Atton whipped his head back and forth to find an available fighter.

_"Code red! Red alert! Invasion pending! All personnel to their stations! We are under attack! Repeat, Red Alert!"_

The field was in a swarm of frantic urgency, with weapons being loaded, blasters thrown back and forth, engines thrumming and hatches clicking closed. Atton hopped into a one-man fighter and sealed the hatch, before turning on the engines. His mind suddenly flashed back to Adel, running for the ramp as Atton prepared to take off. Snapping back to the present, Atton pushed the thrusters and his fighter lifted off the ground. In the distance, he saw Brianna rushing out of the administrative building, her white form flashing between the dark armor of the soldiers. He hesitated, a sudden thought occurring to him: it has been years since the Sith attacked, and these were no ordinary Sith. What if none of them make it back? What if Mira does not know how to free Adel from the coffin?

_Go, Atton._

Atton jerked the controls, his heart racing. _Adel?_

Then Brianna was in the air as well, and the transmission cracked as she yelled across the comm. _"Atton! What are you waiting for?"_

Nothing. Atton pressed the accelerator, and they were past the clouds._  
_


	8. Chapter 8

Return to Life

Chapter 8

As soon as the sky turned black, Atton's ship was attacked. The Force heaved and he went with it, barely dodging a torpedo. His fighter spun and he listened to the Force again to fire back, even though he had no idea what he was firing at.

"Khoonda, this is Master Rand. Do you copy?"

No answer. The signal was jammed.

_That answers that question._ Atton dove for the offense. There were several small meteors, the size of islands, hovering above the planet. From the distance, they really did not look like much, but the Force sang warning and once again, Atton barely dodged a cannon blast.

Anger flared within him. These fiends hurt Adel, had frightened her and trapped her in a coffin they could not break her out of. He still remembered the holoimage of her, frozen in sheer terror, on the verge of tears. He did not care that they dressed her up nicely. They touched Adel, probably drugged her to incoherence, and for that, they should be punished.

He pressed the trigger, his face contorting in his hate. Hate was not befitting a Jedi, but it was very befitting Atton. He could regret this later, once these Sith are dealt with, but he was not letting them take her back. His ship spun wildly as he dodged blaster bolts, and veered away as one meteor exploded into tiny pieces from the combined efforts of multiple fighters.

A surge in the Force made his heart race, but did not guide his hand. It was Brianna, whose fighter was grazed. She dove away from battle to recuperate, and Atton fired to clear a way for her. Bao-Dur was attacking another meteor, and Atton saw his ship flip to avoid the cannon blasts. Many of Dantooine's native fighters were getting hit, though the knights from the Dantooine Enclave were rising up to join them. The Force spasmed as life after life winked out under the assault. Atton pressed the comm again, but the signal was still jammed.

"Schuttas," Atton swore. Without communication, the fighters cannot coordinate their attacks well enough, though one advantage with meteor stations was that the Sith could not change their positions either. They had superior weapons though, ones that blasted through the Dantooine shields as if they were mere paper. He yanked his ship to the side to avoid another blast and dove under a failing fighter, before swinging upwards to avoid flying debris. _Sith!_

The additional knights from the Enclave have arrived, and Atton reached out into the Force to connect with them. Brianna reentered the fold, her ship noticeably damaged but apparently functional enough for her to be confident. In his moment of distraction, Atton veered close to a meteor and all of the sudden the Dark Side enveloped him like a shroud.

_Darth Sion stood tall and proud in the darkness, and Atton could not tell if his force aura was more repulsive, or the stench of his decomposing flesh. The Sith Lord smirked at him, skin cracking and flaking around his mouth._

_"And I get the fool."_

_Not to be outdone, Atton lit his lightsaber as well. "Funny—that's just what I was thinking…"_

The ship swung and Atton was veering away from the meteor.

"Son of a schutta!" Atton exclaimed out loud, heart hammering, "What the _Sith _was that?"

He did not have time to reflect, because he was veering near another meteor, and once again the Dark Side clouded his mind.

_Pain flared from his arm, or were his arm should have been. Darth Sion's back was turned; the Sith Lord was walking away. More than the sense of failure was dread; Adel, Adel still needed him. He could not kill Darth Sion by himself, but he could stall, give her time—anything at all, to save her. He had to save her. She was his whole world._

_"Running away?" He sputtered out, staggering to his feet, and the dark lord paused. "I'm not done with you yet."_

_Darth Sion turned, his mutilated face twisting into a sneer._

_"Nor I you," He said in a voice that sounded as decayed as he was. Reaching out, he grabbed Atton by the throat and hauled him into the air._

_"I will remake you," The Sith hissed, as Atton gasped and choked, his bloody stump of an arm threatening to take away all consciousness. He held to awareness with all his will. He will do whatever it takes to save Adel, whatever it takes—"So when I look upon you it shall be like a mirror. Then I will let you die."_

_A twisted glee formed in Atton's stomach. As long as Sion is here, he is not with Adel. In Atton's current state, that was all he could care about._

_"There is nothing worse you can do to me," He even managed a smile. "Take your time."_

_Sion's sneer widened into a grin, and Atton's world melted into pain—_

Screaming, Atton jerked out of the Dark energies. His arm was on fire! It had been cut off! But it was not cut off—it was still there…

_What just happened? _He swerved away to compose himself. his heart was thundering as if hyperventilating, and through his panic, he took a good look at the meteors. Each about the size of half of a small moon. Sparks and flashes signaled their cannon blasts. It did not take a genius to realize he was being affected by the Dark Side, though this was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

He had encountered Darth Sion, soon after escaping Traya. They had exchanged the very words from the vision, but Atton had defeated Sion, who had fled. He then continued to search for the Exile, hoping to catch up to her before she faced the witch. His arm had certainly never been chopped off, and he had never been subject to Sion's mutilation.

A ship veered by him. Brianna looked from her cockpit. He swerve so they were head to head. They could not transmit messages, but they were close enough to read lips.

"I'm being affected by the meteors! Are you?" He asked.

She looked puzzled, and they separated to avoid a plasma bolt, before leaning close again.

"The meteors! The dark side!" Atton gestured to his head. Let her think he was crazy, but he needed to know if it was just him.

She still looked confused. Had she been close enough to the meteors?

"Skim the meteors!" He told her.

Brianna frowned, but twisted the controls, and her ship separated from his. Atton spun his ship to avoid more cannon fire and joined the ranks of some of the soldiers attacking a smaller meteor. He fired a torpedo, causing a large chunk of it to explode. One of the cannon blasts hit another fighter, and Atton saw it puff in flames that were rapidly extinguished in the vacuum of space. Three more exploded before Atton veered his ship so he could no longer see them.

Brianna's ship had flown away. Atton went after her, but noticed she was veering toward another knight. He saw them trail each other the way he and Brianna had done earlier, and then saw her head toward Bao-Dur.

_What is she doing?_

He dove down and up, hearing plasma whiz past, and fired his last torpedo. His ship was out of ammunition. Taking the chance, he followed the line of ships descending back down into Dantooine's atmosphere.

When he landed, Deesra was just getting into his ship.

"I need to reload!" Atton yelled, as Deesra's ship flew up. The sound of a falling missile streaked in the sky. Atton ducked and covered his head, and seconds later, the world exploded and he was flung into the air.

Past the ringing in his ears, he could hear, or was it feel? The soldiers dashing back and forth, and the ground rocked as another bomb hit the earth. The Sith were attacking the planet.

_Sithspit!_ Atton's ship went up in flames the next minute, and he ducked once more to avoid the flying shrapnel and flaming debris.

"Get to cover!" He heard everyone yell, though their voices were muffled due to his ringing eardrums. He suddenly sensed a bomb heading straight for him and sprang into a dash, using the Force to enhance his speed. Even so, when the ground rocked with another explosion, the blast threw him into the walls of the administrative building. He lay there, dazed for a moment, only to jar into full consciousness when Mira grabbed his arm.

"Atton! We have to get Adel out of here! We need to get her off planet now!" The ground rocked and she stumbled and fell to the side, but got up and tugged his arm again. "Atton! Hurry!"

The building was not designed to withstand direct attacks, and some of the ceilings were already crumbling from the repeated quakes. Chunks of wall were already covering Adel's coffin, though predictably there was not even a dent on it. Using the Force, Atton partially levitated the coffin while lifting it wih his hands, and Mira did the same on the other side. They both stumbled as another explosion hit, and the windows shattered, followed by a wave of heat and flame, singing at their robes.

They carried the Exile through the damaged hallways faster than either thought possible, jostling her body within violently in their desperation. The hangar was more stable, though there were cracks on the floor. Most of the ships were gone; there was one ship that was a one-man fighter, and much too small to fit Adel's coffin.

Atton swore. "What do we do?"

"Attach her outside!" Mira cried, "It's our only hope!" Using the Force, she yanked the chains from the other side of the room and quickly wrapped it around the coffin, before attaching one side to a hook and linking it to the back of the ship.

"What? What if the heat from the back of the ship—"

"No time, Atton!" As if on cue, there was a huge explosion in the hangar, knocking both Jedi over. Flames arched up on that side of the room, right in the way of the gate.

Mira did not waste a beat as she rose again, a cut bleeding badly down her forehead. "If lightsabers can't open the coffin, nothing on this ship can! Get her out of here! Go! Go!"

Atton was already jumping into the cockpit. Mira jumped on top, and before Atton could see what she was doing, she was levitating the coffin up. More chains clashed against the hatch.

"Lift up!" Mira yelled at him.

"You're standing on the fighter!" Atton shouted back.

"Lift up! I'll strap her more tightly to the ship! That way you two won't be separated, you kath hound!"

He obliged, and heard the clink of chains as Mira wrapped it around both the coffin and the ship. She tied the coffin firmly, like a gift, before jumping off.

"Go!" She shouted. "Go go go!"

She was running out of the hangar before Atton could ask where she was going. He thrust the controls and blazed straight through the fire, glancing up only to ensure that Adel was still firmly attached. The hangar exploded seconds after he cleared the open air, and he muttered a prayer to the Force that Mira was alright. He was bringing up the last coordinates to hyperspace even as he flew, and as soon as the sky cleared to black, he started the hyperdrive. The fiery fog of battle blended into hyperspace, and all became quiet in the Force, save for Atton's own frantic breathing.

He glanced up, momentarily panicked that he had gone to hyperspeed without Adel—he should have thought that through before he went so far. Adel's coffin was still on his ship, however, and though he could not check to see if she was still in it, since he was looking up at the bottom of her coffin, the ship's mass registers indicated that the mass of the fighter had grown, to the amount consistent with the weight of both Adel and her resting bed.

He rubbed his face. Hopefully Mira was alright; he did not see if Visas or Bao-Dur or Brianna still remained in the battle before he started the hyperdrive. He had not felt their deaths in the Force; he was not entirely certain if he would, but surely that was a comfort? With another sigh, Atton glanced down at the coordinates. Where was he going anyway?

"Well, _babe_," He murmured absent-mindedly, using the affectionate nickname he had given Adel in their time together, "I guess it's just you and me for now, just like old times, eh?" Where were these coordinates? Where has this ship been? He hoped he was not going to emerge in the middle of an asteroid field. His heart could not take it.

"Well, wherever we're going, it will take us a mere two hours to get there." And Atton planned on leaving as soon as they arrived.

"Stay with me, _babe_," Atton breathed, "You're going to be just fine. You're home now, and we won't let those bad Sith get to you again, alright sweetheart?

He was going mad. He was basically talking to himself. His heart slowed with the realization, and he fought the urge to slam his forehead into the controls. Honestly, how pathetic could he get?

Sighing, he leaned back and waited for the trip to be over.


	9. Chapter 9

Return to Life

Chapter 9

They emerged out of hyperspace in front of a gas planet that was completely inhospitable to life forms. Atton had no way of checking to see Adel's condition, since there was no place for him to land and get out of the ship. He risked a brief pause to try to contact the other Jedi, but only knew Deesra's and Mira's frequency, neither of whom answered his transmission. Unable to do anything else, he plotted another jump, this time towards Dxun. The moon had a rich biodiversity, so he should be well-hidden there, and any Sith who followed him would probably not expect him to head back in that direction.

Two hours later, Dxun emerged, with Onderon spanning behind it. Atton hesitated, since he could go to either place, but figured that he would have to explain himself more on Onderon. Dxun's Force presence thrummed with life, and Onderon presented a bigger target anyway. He dove, experiencing a rougher landing than usual because it was nighttime, and jumped out of the ship to check his cargo.

To his relief, Adel was unharmed. Her position had shifted from the rough jostling, the flower petals sticking over her face and hair. Obviously, the entire coffin was a stasis chamber, for the petals had not even dried.

He reached for his comm again and tried to contact Deesra and Mira, but received no answer. He studied the ship, wondering if he should move Adel off. If the Sith attack, he would just have to strap her on again. On the other hand, it would be difficult to hide her if she was also attached to a vessel.

"Dang it," He muttered, "It's been four hours…" The Force detected the movements of nocturnal beasts and Atton headed back into the shelter of the ship's tiny cockpit. It was a tight fit, hardly meant for long travel and certainly not for sleeping, but it should be sufficient to ward off the animals. He slid the overhead closed and listened as the various creatures bumped and scratched at the hull, before giving up and leaving.

"Well, girl," He said to Adel, still strapped to the ship with the chains, "Finally got the night alone together eh? Not exactly what I expected. You're a lot more comfortable than I am, that's for sure."

Feeling listless and crestfallen, the Jedi Master shut his eyes.

_Revan sends his regards,_ Adel's eyes were bright and focused, and she was beautiful, as always, dressed in that white gown that made her look like a goddess—but she was moving her body back and forth, like a hyperactive child, so different from the majestic calm she exhibited back in the days of the Ebon Hawk. _He knows he can't match me, so he let me go ahead._

Atton was hopelessly confused. _What are you talking about?_

_Here it is a lonely place, _Adel went on, _But I knew you were home, and I knew you were well._

_You are not alone, _Atton knelt before her. _You were never alone. You could have taken me with you._

_Not you, her, _Said Adel. _He didn't know you, remember?_

_What are you talking about? _Atton asked again, feeling despair choking him. _Who's 'he'?_

_I need to feel safe, _Said Adel.

"Hey," A knock on the overhead, and Atton snapped his eyes open to look at a familiar helmet. He drew up short for a moment. It was years ago, since he last saw this man, and though somewhere in his brain he had known who would be on the moon, he had not thought of it when he chose to come here. There was that familiarly arrogant voice, the tough voice of a soldier and commander who was honorable in his own right.

"I have a lot of questions for you, Jedi."

The Jedi Master blinked, still dazed. "Mandalore?"

"Correction," Said Mandalore, ignoring his acknowledgment, "I have _one _question for you. Explain this."

He was gesturing up, at Adel's coffin.

"Force," Atton gritted his teeth. His entire body ached from being cramped in the cockpit. How long had he been asleep?

"Is that the Exile?" Mandalore asked when Atton climbed out.

"That is Adel," Atton groaned.

"So she's dead."

"We are hoping not."

Mandalore paused. Through his armor, Atton could discern no reaction, but he had the distinct impression that the man was saddened.

"Why is she in there then?"

"Don't know why they put her in there, but we can't get her out."

"They?"

"The Sith."

Another pause. The other Mandalorians shifted a little at Atton's words. Mandalore appeared to run this over in his mind.

"Onderon sent troops to Dantooine. Is that what this was?"

"Yes," Atton scratched the back of his head. _Owwww…_his neck hurt! _Son of a schutta…_

"You couldn't get her out even with a lightsaber?"

"Thing's impenetrable."

This time the silence that fell was a reverent one, as if the man was taking the time to quickly pay his respects, which Atton found annoying. Adel was not dead. She could not be—she was too much of a…_being…_to die.

After a while, Mandalore glanced at Atton again.

"What do you want to do with her?"

"I got her off Dantooine to…protect her. I'm not sure what I want to do, but whatever is safest for her. I don't want the Sith to get their hands on her again."

Mandalore gestured to his men. "Let's move her off this scrap of metal. We'll bring her to the camp. She will be secure there."

Atton nodded dumbly. "Thanks, Mandalore."

"Don't thank me," Said the man, "I'm doing this for the Exile, as any honorable man should. One to another. She was a great warrior. Whatever got her in there, she definitely put up one hell of a fight."

Atton thought back to T3M4's holo-recordings and did not reply.

"And I want to break her out of this pathetic case," Mandalore went on, "The Exile should not be dressed like some prissy princess."

The former Sith assassin found himself laughing at that. "She is a bit daintier than she deserves, eh?"

"Horrid," Mandalore huffed, "Not her style at all. And flowers? Ugh."

The other Mandalorians shifted Adel off the ship. The lightsaber in her hand toppled out and clattered against the glass casing. Atton winced. If that lightsaber had turned on through all the bumping…

He suddenly blinked. What if…

"Steady, men!" Mandalore barked. The sky was dark, and they were lighting the way with torches. The formidable warrior turned to Atton. "Come."

They gave Atton a chamber where he could watch over the Exile, and even gave him some food, which he touched only briefly. He used the Force to move her lightsaber around, but did not turn it on. He was not sure he wanted to break her out of what by all respects was the safest place she could be. The Mandalorians did not have the technology to put her in stasis again, nor did they have the proper medics or healers, and he did not know if she had been damaged in ways they could not notice.

He tried to coontact the others again. Deesra did not reply, but Mira did. Blaster shots echoed in the background.

"Mira! Is everyone alright?"

Mira sounded peeved.

_"No, everyone is _not _alright. These stupid meteors are tough and well protected for a bunch of floating cannons. Where are you?"_

"I'm on Dxun. I'm at the Mandalorian camp."

_"You're sitting in the lion's cave, Atton."_

"There's a lot of life here, the Force should cover us, and I'm shielding. What's the count?"

_"Brianna's gone offline, I haven't seen her ship in a while; Bao-Dur and Visas are still here, and we had the Onderon navy join us about six hours ago. Still ongoing, trying to blast these Sith out of orbit but it's proving to be—"_ There was a loud explosion_. _"—_Force! Is Adel alright?"_

"Yes, I'm with Adel." Atton briefly considered asking if Mira needed his help, but decided he really did not want to leave Adel alone with the Mandalorians. They may be honorable, but Adel was…_really _beautiful right now. And completely helpless. He would not put it past them to try to break open the coffin while he was away.

_"Last I heard from Bao-Dur, some of the Sith had managed to launch their meteors to hyperspace shortly after you left," _Mira warned, _"Apparently these meteors don't have engines but they do have hyperdrives, which is weird—but that aside, lay low for now. You might be safe on Dxun, but don't use the Force too much, and don't contact us again. They know how to trace transmissions, they could attempt to trace this one."_

She cut the connection.

"Asteroids in hyperspace?" Atton glanced at Adel. "This just keeps getting better and better."

Mandalore's footstep clicked against the floor of the chamber as he entered.

"Were they coming for her?" He asked.

Atton did not ask who 'they' were. "It seems so. We didn't have much of a chance to figure out their exact motives. Whatever it was, it's related to Adel, so I was charged with taking her out of the battle scene."

"Are you going back to help?"

Atton stared at Adel's prone form. She was lying a little bit on her side now, and her arm was plastered against the glass. "No. I will stay with her."

"The Exile would not want you to sacrifice other lives for her sake," Mandalore said knowingly. "She had that nobleness about her. It was what motivated her to fight us in the wars, what allowed her to eliminate three Sith Lords, and what drove her from the galaxy years ago. You would to a disservice to all she is by remaining with her."

Atton glared. "She carries information on her. Not to mention, as long as we have her, we have something the Sith wants. They were willing to leave the Unknown Regions ahead of time for her, which means we have some influence over them. Don't preach to me about honor, Mandalore."

"Information? What information?"

"We need to break her out of this thing before we know for sure."

"You can't reach it through the Jedi magic you've learned?"

"The _Force,_" Atton drawled, "Like you don't know what it is, _Mandalore._ And no, or else we'd be able to break her out of this thing!" He recalled briefly that the Mandalorian had always been this annoying; pompous and self-righteous with his racism. "I need to meditate."

"Jedi and their meditations," Mandalore muttered. He suddenly shot at Adel's coffin with his blaster. The bolt ricocheted into the walls, and Atton had his lightsaber lit and at the ready before he even knew what had happened.

"Sith!" Atton yelled, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Testing," Said Mandalore, lifting his blaster away. "You're right. It _is _resistant. How interesting."

"Idiot," Atton spat, "You think a _blaster _holds anything over a lightsaber on full power?"

"Who knows what you people did," Mandalore turned away, "You lot were always soft and sentimental. I wouldn't be surprised if you held back for fear of harming her corpse."

"She's not dead, you schutta."

"So you say," The man walked away.

Feeling drained and exhausted, Atton slumped down next to Adel and leaned his body against the glass. It was almost like lying on top of her, but he had no energy nor spirit left to come up with any witty one-liners about that.

"Wake up," He begged, shutting his eyes. "Open this lid and wake up. We need you. I need you."

_Jaq, _Adel murmured.

_No. _Atton fought the sob in his throat. _I'm not him anymore. Don't you remember?_

_Jaq._

_It's Atton. My name is Atton. Please, Adel. I'm not…I'm not him anymore._

Adel lifted her clear eyes, framed with long, velvety lashes.

_So many paths, _She said, _Which one are we on? Do you love me?_

The question caught Atton by surprise, but he paused only a millisecond.

_Yes. I love you. I love you more than anything on this earth. Adel—_

_Oh. _Somehow, that simple word cut off anything else he could have said. Adel continued to stare at him.

Atton woke with tears in his eyes.

"Son of a Sith…" He muttered, wiping at them. Why was he crying like a woman?

The night was only starting to lift, and he polished away the smears left by his face on Adel's glass lid. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, crying over a dream…_

But he loved Adel, and it was the first time in many years he had been able to confess that much to the woman who meant the galaxy to him, even if it was in a dream.

His comm beeped.

_"Atton,"_ Mical's dulcet voice jarred him out of his self-pity, _"I've been trying to contact you lot on Dantooine. What's going on? I heard Dantooine is under attack. The entire sector is locked down."_

"And where are you, blondie?" Atton sneered. "Not on Dantooine, I'm guessing?"

_"I had to make a stop at Ithor. I was contacting to check on any status updates, but all frequencies are offline except yours. What happened?"_

"The Sith happened, _Mical._ They managed to board a bunch of asteroids somehow, shot down any ships that tried to contact through comm. Visas was shot down, though she was alive. When I left, everyone was engaging the Sith."

_"Wait what? You left?"_

Atton growled the entire story.

_"Are you at the camp?"_

"Yes."

_"And she's there?"_

"Yes."

_"Alright. I'm plotting a jump to Onderon, which isn't locked down. It will be several days before I arrive. Please stay there."_

"I have nowhere else to _be_, blondie," Atton spat. He slammed the comm into Adel's glass in frustration. The slight movement caused the lightsaber to slip out of her hand.

Alarmed, Atton used the Force to slide the lightsaber back into her hand. He then paused.

Blood. Brianna said…her blood should open the coffin. Atton could hardly wipe Adel's blood if she was inside…unless the blood came from the inside? What if he made a small cut? Smear it along the glass from the inside…perhaps that would be enough.

He glanced at the exit to the outside. All was quiet, and the sky was still dark. He could hear some of the Mandalorians patrolling the camp.

There was no telling what condition Adel would be in if Atton freed her. She might need medical care. The coffin could be the only thing keeping her alive…

But if for some reason he needed to transport her again, the coffin would only get in the way. It would add to the ship's mass and distort its shape. Not to mention…he wanted her out, if only for his state of mind.

What was the harm? Just a little blood.

There was nothing sharp inside the coffin; the lightsaber was round and smooth and graceful, but Atton knew that within it was a crystal, and he began to meticulously dismantle it. After a long while, the crystal was glistening in the dim light, hovering slightly above her body.

Atton studied it at first. Adel mentioned that everything was in the crystal. Unfortunately, he could glean nothing from it; not with the coffin in the way.

With the Force, he lifted Adel's hand and made a cut on the side of her finger. He gathered the blood that welled onto the crystal and plastered it against the edge of the glass where it met the platform. He had planned on smearing it along all four sides, but the glass suddenly shimmered as soon as he touched it with the blood. Dark energies rippled along its surface.

Heart thudding loudly in his chest, Atton dared to place a hand on the glass. It burned him, the Force foul and sinister against his palm, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it, even as a vision was clouding his mind.

_Hey, kid._

_Atton! The Exile, where is she?  
_

_She's safe, you don't need to worry about her. You never did, really. You know how long it's been since I killed a Jedi? You get a taste for it, you know. I killed a bunch here on Malachor, while the planet was dying. Killing a half-Jedi like you should hold me over until the next one comes along. They always do, you know._

"Ugh!" Atton cried, falling away. What was that? Gasping for breath, he tried to recompose himself.

It was like…he was dark, again. Filled with murderous intent. He had fully intended to kill Mical…

And then Adel moved.

In a flash, Atton forgot all about what he just saw and felt. With the Force, he shoved at the glass lid, and to his amazement, it clattered off to the ground. He dove and his arms were full of Adel and Adel was wheezing and whimpering but she was alive and Atton could not hold back his tears. She coughed and choked and Atton hushed her and rubbed her back and he was suddenly thanking everything, from the Force to the Sith to Mandalore to Mical because Adel was alive in his arms!

"It's alright, it's alright sweetheart," He kissed her fervently on the temple, "It's alright babe. You're alright. You're home, you're here, I've got you, you won't be hurt again."

He let go to look at her face, but froze. She was pale, her eyes filled with fright and her cheeks glistening with tears. He then noticed that she was shaking in terror, and she worried her lips as if trying to speak.

Was there brain damage?

"Adel? Adel, look at me," he grabbed her face gently between his hands, "Do you remember me? It's me, Atton. You know, 'the fool'?"

The Exile could only let out a soft whimper.

Atton stared at her for a moment longer, before deciding he did not really care if she remembered him. Adel was alive, she was freed from her prison, and her heart was beating and she was breathing and here with him. He pulled her to him, reveling the feel of her warm body against his.

"I love you," He said to her, "Everything will be alright. I will take care of you."

By the time Mandalore found them, the sky had fully lightened, and Adel was relaxed and sleeping with her arms around Atton's neck, like a child.


	10. Chapter 10

Return to Life

Chapter 10

It started raining again.

Atton found this fitting. He was beside himself, with what he could not say. On one hand, Adel was alive, free from her gilded prison, blinking her doll-like eyes and holding on to him the way he had always fantasized but never dared hope for. The warmth of her, the smell of her, were for once real, no longer imagined. He could feel her heartbeat against his chest, her muscles twitch with lingering shudders, and the quick inhale and exhale of her breath, as if she were saying silently, _I'm alive, I'm here, at last._ She huddled to him with a trust she had never shown as the Exile, pressing herself so tightly to him that he felt overwhelmed.

On the other hand, she was little more than that. She never spoke since waking, and once her whimpers died down she became a silent thing. Her movements were uncoordinated, little better than a toddler's, and her Force signature remained muted, almost nonexistent. The Sith had done something to her, and Atton was terrified that she had not truly returned. The Exile was her own temple; she maintained that aloofness befitting of a priestess superior to those around her, not because she was arrogant, but because she exuded that purity and grace that made others respect her too much to think themselves her equals. When she reached out to touch someone, they felt blessed, and even when she was harmed, she was so filled with power that no one could believe her weak for it. She respected the personal space of others as much as they respected hers, and would never in a million years fold herself into Atton this way.

He continued to hold her, despite his inner turmoil. What he thought before still stood. Whole or not, he would rather have a broken Adel than no Adel at all. Broken meant alive. Broken meant he could spend the rest of his life healing her.

"Can't you use one of your Jedi mind tricks?" Mandalore demanded. "Figure out what's wrong with her?"

Even though Atton had thought the same thing, he snapped, "There's nothing wrong with her."

"The Exile would never behave so pathetically."

"_You _try being imprisoned by Sith for a couple of years, and let's see how much better _you _are then," The ex-Sith assassin sneered in disgust. "Give her a break. She just needs time. Who knows what they've done to her while in the Unknown Regions."

Adel suddenly bit the front of his tunic and pulled with her teeth. The gesture reminded Atton disturbingly of a baby.

"Now what sort of ordeal would make a grown woman do that?" Mandalore drawled.

"Shut up," Atton freed the cloth, "What are you doing, sweetheart?" He crooned, but Adel was looking blankly at his tunic and looked like she wanted to bite at it again. "No no," His hand shook as he moved her chin gently away, "Don't do that. It's dirty. You don't want to eat clothes."

"Maybe she's hungry," Mandalore stood. "She doesn't seem to be talking, at any rate."

He stepped out, and Atton did not stop him. He was far too disturbed by Adel's behavior. _Whatever happened to her, I'll stick with her. I'll leave the Order to take care of her._ But he squeezed his eyes shut to will away his pending despair. _It's not fair. Adel does not deserve this._

He moved Adel's face so that she was looking directly up at him. Her face looked blank, but her eyes focused on his, as if she knew him.

Atton had been a Jedi for many years now, and was now one of the masters. Entering someone's mind was a trick he had learned a long time ago, despite abhorring its practice. This time, he merely wanted to make sure that Adel's mental shields were intact, because that would mean her mind was intact as well.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," He murmured soothingly, "Let me in. I won't hurt you."

He concentrated, and slid into her mind slowly. He was instantly bombarded with chaos. Lights and colors swirled all around, distorting images and feelings. Nothing was coherent—there was no shield at all, let alone an intact one, and everything was a mess of confusion.

He pulled out, breathing heavily. Adel's mind was so scrambled, it was no wonder she could not speak, or move properly. She probably did not even know her own name.

Atton took a deep breath, pushing down the panic. No problem. Adel's mental state—not a problem. She was alive, and he will help her, and so will the other Jedi, and…

_Sith, what are we going to do?_

He kissed her on the temple, and then bathed her forehead with kisses. If nothing else, if Adel never makes sense of anything ever again, he could make her feel loved, protected, safe. Perhaps that would be its own reward. Adel had suffered so much, had seen so much death—perhaps this mental loss was a fair trade for blissful ignorance. He pressed her to him and squeezed his eyes shut to hold back his tears. Adel should not have to trade anything—she should be joyful and completely aware of everything. Was it too much to ask?

Perhaps it was. Up till last night, he had not even been certain if she would come out alive. Up till about a week and a half ago, he had not been certain if he would ever see her again, alive or dead. _Be thankful, you're a fool, you've done so many terrible things that the Force would hardly be disposed to reward you. Be thankful for what you have…_

But this wasn't about him. This was about Adel. She should not have to suffer any of this.

It was not fair for _her._

A few minutes later, Mandalore came back, with a few soldiers carrying several crates and a large bucket filled with soup.

"What's that?" Atton asked, looking at the dirty bucket dubiously. "She's not much of a warrior right now. If you think she can handle eating filth, you can go to—"

"It's clean on the inside, _Jedi,_" Mandalore drawled, "Believe it or not, we Mandalorians know how to treat the sick. If you're going to keep behaving like this, I'll just feed her and leave you to starve."

Atton sighed. "Sorry," He rubbed his face, "It's just…been a miserable week." _Miserable few years._ Feeling the need to confide in someone, even a stuck-up arrogant Mandalorian, he went on to reveal, "She's not well. Her mind's…scrambled. A mess. I can't make heads or tails of anything in her head. It's like her thoughts were all jumbled and smeared everywhere."

Mandalore stared at him for a moment, and the Jedi had the distinct sense that under the helmet, the warrior was looking as dismayed as Atton felt.

"Can you do anything?" The other man finally asked.

"I don't know." Atton accepted the bowl from one of the soldiers, "Won't stop me from trying though."

"Maybe it's temporary," Mandalore finally said. "She was in there for a while. It might take her several days."

Atton was afraid of such optimism, but he preferred this to what Mandalore was doing earlier. "Maybe."

Adel sniffed, but did not relinquish her hold around Atton's neck. When Atton freed himself, she did not take the bowl. He wrapped her hands carefully around it, but she wavered even as he held it with her. Her coordination was not good enough to allow her to feed herself, assuming she even understood the concept in the first place.

Atton fed her the soup, blowing first to cool it and carefully lifting it to her lips. Adel bit down on the spoon each time, and Atton wondered if it was because she could not control her jaw very well or if she was trying to eat the spoon. She was swallowing well, however, and was opening her mouth at all the right times, so they managed to avoid a mess. When she finished the bowl, she gave a childlike yawn and pressed herself to him, promptly falling asleep.

"Cute," Mandalore opined, "If she weren't the Exile."

Atton just sighed and began eating his own meal while holding Adel close.

Later, as the rain grew harsher, Atton reclined on his cot with Adel cuddled beside him. Another one of his fantasies come to fruition, but he was not yet ready to come to terms with it. It felt good to hold her like this, like he was protecting her, but his mind was too filled with worry over her mental condition, and what to do now.

Adel remained asleep as he tried to contact the other Jedi, but this time no one answered his transmission at all. He tucked his commlink away and shut his eyes while he stroke Adel's soft air, tucking the Mandalorian blanket around them so she was warm and sheltered.

_She can no longer be a Jedi,_ Said a familiar voice.

Atton was in a dark place, a place he had forgotten and yet knew well. Around him were ancient pillars, supporting the academy at Malachor V. Except…Malachor V was destroyed, and so was the owner of the voice.

He whirled around. In the distance was a blurry figure, pale and cold, its aura slimy and sickly like a bog filled with dead bodies.

_You are dead,_ Atton stated, walking forward, _Adel defeated you, just as she defeated that witch of your master._

Darth Sion remained blurry, even though Atton knew him. He laughed a low, rumbling laugh, menacing and cynical.

_So the Exile did,_ Said the Sith Lord, _But there is no death. There is the Force._

_That's a Jedi's saying, _Atton remarked.

They were suddenly in the caves of Korriban, where the bodies of dead Sith littered the place, old bones testifying to their former existence and past exploits. Sion was moving ahead of Atton, and for some reason, the latter felt compelled to follow.

_You guard a precious treasure, Fool,_ Sion murmured as he went, _It would be more merciful to kill her, then to subject her to the taint of the world._

_Yeah, well you Sith have an odd definition of mercy._

Sion laughed. _You speak as if you were not one of us, Killer of Jedi._

They were walking through the halls of the Sith Academy on Korriban.

_This is where I first met her,_ Darth Sion stated.

All of the sudden, Adel was there, dressed in the coarse robes of Jedi with her hair loose and matted to her skin by her sweat, and so was Sion as he was in the past, an undead beast of decaying flesh held together by the Dark Side of the Force. Adel lit her lightsaber, and in that instant Atton saw her the way Sion had at the time, like a goddess in her purity and determination. A flash of that beautiful countenance, that gleam in her eye, and all of the sudden Adel was whirling away and running. Atton sensed Sion's yearning to follow her, to touch her soft cheek, to perhaps hold her to him, but the Sion in the vision remained still. As the Sith assassins around him lunged forward, the dark lord halted them, effectively allowing the Exile to escape.

_You let her go,_ Atton murmured, _She told us that. She told us that you told her you loved her. _Then, because he was upset and must do something about it, he added, _That's not very Sith of you._

The Sion of memory shimmered away and the halls became empty. Beside Atton, the pale wraith laughed, without mirth or joy.

_The Sith love, Master Jedi. Our love is that which others cannot understand_. _However, as darkness and anger is the bane of those who align with the light, light and nobility is the bane of those who align with the dark. All Sith pursue her because we love her, and unlike we fools of the known galaxy, the True Sith know her for what she is, and seek to preserve her instead of destroy her. When they find her again, she will not escape their hold. She will not find the freedom of death, for they will not allow her to leave. They cherish her too much. She will go mad, but forever will she remain in the light, for light is what she chose and what has chosen her._

Atton clenched his hands. _Tell me how to save her,_ He demanded.

Sion did not reply. The vision was starting to fade.

_Tell me!_ The Jedi cried, _You loved her too! You still do! I know it! She deserves to be happy, not locked up in some coffin!_ What was he doing? Was he trying to appeal to a Sith Lord's _compassion?_ But logic flew out the window as his surroundings continued to shimmer away and he called out desperately, _You have to help her!_

_She can no longer be a Jedi,_ Said Sion.

Atton woke with a gasp. Adel started, blinking awake and whimpering.

"Shh, I'm sorry," Atton hushed her, rubbing her back. "Hush, love." He kissed her forehead. "You're alright."

What an odd dream. _No. _It was not a dream. Atton was not sure how he felt about knowing that Sith Lord ghosts could invade Jedi's dreams even after they have been dead for so many years, but at least this Sith Lord loved Adel and was somewhat helpful. _She can no longer be a Jedi. _That is fine. The time for Adel to make sacrifices for the galaxy is long past. It is time for others to take her place. She could retire and live in comfort and reap the benefits of all she had accomplished before. Being a Jedi was all about giving oneself. Adel had nothing left to give. It was time for her to receive.

"You don't need to go back to the Jedi," Atton said to her, "No going back. We'll go away so you can heal and just enjoy yourself. How does that sound?"

Adel stared blankly at him, looking like she understood nothing he said at all.

It was still raining. Atton allowed her to settle back down against him. This time he kept his eyes open, as he listened to her fall back asleep to the background of the wet patter outside.


	11. Chapter 11

Return to Life

Chapter 11

It was later that evening when Atton had the sudden urge to leave Dxun. He called Mira, and managed to get in touch with her, though the updates were not the most encouraging.

_"I told you not to contact us!"_

"I need to know what's going on!"

Mira groaned. _"It's a stalemate, right now, we're holding positions now,"_ She reported, _"Both sides have ceased fire. We managed to get rid of some of the smaller stations but the larger ones are too well-defended. Some of the other knights reported seeing additional Sith enter hyperspace, possibly to pursue Adel. It's a big galaxy, but you should leave Dxun and head to a denser body where even Jedi are easily lost."_

"Like where?"

_"Nar Shaddaa is a good place to get lost. You know as well as I do, _Atton Rand_."_

"I'm not bringing her to Nar Shaddaa!" _That's crazy!_ "She's vulnerable right now! She can't understand anything that's going on, and can't even walk on her own!"

_"What are you talking about?" _Then, Mira suddenly seemed to understand. _"She's out? You freed her? She's alive?"_

Adel, in the meantime, seemed to listen to the comm with rapt interest.

_"How did you free her? Is she alright?"_

"Not the time, Mira. Mical wants to meet me at Dxun and is heading this way now. I can't just leave this place unless I know for sure that it's safe to head out."

_"I can't promise you that, but I can promise you that if you go to Nar Shaddaa, even if they do pursue you it would be easy to get lost there. Do you need me to rendezvous with you there?"_

"Nar Shaddaa?" The Smuggler's Moon? That place was filled with scum and lowlives, and it felt wrong to bring the now innocent, doll-like Adel to such a place. On the other hand, Mira was right. There really was no better place to disappear. He could stop at Nar Shaddaa and throw the Sith off their trail, before hopping somewhere else, somewhere safer. "Fine. I'll be leaving the camp. Don't come; we'd present a bigger target if there are three of us altogether, and there are people there who know you."

_"There are people there who know you too."_

"Well, the odds are slimmer when there's only one of us. I have a beard." He rubbed at his chin as he spoke. Over the last few days, he had not shaved properly, and in fact, Adel had taken to rubbing her face curiously against his. "How is everyone else?"

_"We're all here; Visas, Brianna, and Bao. Deesra's managing the others as I talk to you. Be careful, Atton. And _don't initiate transmissions _again unless something happened to Adel, like she is killed or recaptured! If you go to Nar Shaddaa, don't report back. We'll find you somehow. Understand?"_

"Yes yes, Atton out."

_"Wait!" _It was Brianna. _"Did you get her out, Atton? How?"_

_"Not now, Bri," _Mira interrupted,

_"No wait, did you keep the crystal? Take her lightsaber with her! Everything in the coffin has to be taken with her, except the coffin itself."_

"Wha?" Atton blinked, "Why?"

_"Just take them with you!"_

"Even the flowers?"

_"Yes! Don't leave anything behind. Take the headdress too, and her clothes. They're all important. Don't leave them behind!"_

"Uh…alright," That sounded easy enough. No doubt Brianna would explain later, whenever that time comes. "Understood. Atton out."

A quick talk with Mandalore later and arrangements were made. There was no ship on Dxun equipped with a hyperdrive, but there was a ship that could smuggle them to Onderon. Though Atton loathed to go through the bureaucratic protocols, with the Mandalorians he could easily skip through those and head for the palace. Queen Talia, last he heard, remembered the Jedi Exile who had saved her planet from tyranny, and though he could not actually contact her, once on Onderon he could request a ship, which he will then take to Nar Shaddaa. He will dump the ship there and take another transport from Nar Shaddaa to another planet, whichever one was available, but at least he and Adel would be properly lost by that time.

Adel was still dressed in her white gown. The Mandalorians provided some extra ill-fitting clothes, but it took Atton some time to summon the courage to redress her. He warded her from the other soldiers to protect her dignity and stripped her briskly, taking care not to look at her. It reminded him of how they first met on Peragus, when Adel had been running around in her underwear and Atton had been locked in the cell bay. She had been a little shy then, no doubt unused to dressing so scantly.

This time around, she seemed hardly aware that what he was doing ought to be inappropriate. It was difficult for her to sit upright because she kept falling over, but she did not resist him as he pulled the silk up and tugged the sleeves from her arm. Underneath was another layer, followed by another, and Atton had to put up with four layers before reaching an inner dress that reached halfway between her knees and ankles. She was even smaller now, with all the layers off. Atton wavered, wondering if he should stop there, before deciding to leave it on. If he had to, he could take the final layer off later.

Her arms were exposed, and were covered with puncture marks, as if someone had been using an antiquated needle to inject her repeatedly. Adel seemed as bewildered by the dots as Atton was, and began scratching at them. Atton grabbed her hands to keep her from injuring herself.

"Lets get you in these pants," He said to her. The material was coarse, though loose because they were too big for her. Adel uttered a noise of complaint as Atton lifted her hips to slide them on. He ultimately removed the innermost dress to slip on a tunic. By the time he finished, Adel looked as exhausted as he felt.

"Guess you won't be walking very much sweetheart," He glanced down at her shoes, which were not fit for the road. The Mandalores did not have boots her size, but Adel could not even sit up, let alone run around. He anticipated that he would have to do quite a bit of carrying. _Wouldn't that attract a lot of attention. _At least she no longer looked like a princess. She still looked impossibly beautiful, but the clothes concealed her slim figure and the hood around her head should hide much of her looks.

Mandalore knocked.

"Come in," Atton called out. "She's as ready as she'll ever be."

"We only have enough fuel to go to Onderon," Said the warrior, "Let's hope that Queen of theirs is as honorable as they say."

"She owes Adel," Said Atton, lifting Adel's clothes and stuffing them in a bag. He had not reassembled her lightsaber, but he stuffed the pieces in his tunic; while on board the ship Mandalore is lending them, he could assemble it back together. "And if she says otherwise, I'll figure something out. But Adel saved her life, and she seemed the noble sort when we met."

"Safe trip, Jedi Rand. Exile," Mandalore appeared to look deeply into Adel's eyes. "Best of luck to you."

Adel only blinked at him.

Atton lifted the bag and started stuffing the flower petals inside. "No one is to say anything of our arrival here, Mandalore."

"Of course not. My men have no idea who she is, and they will follow my orders."

"See that they do." Atton lifted Adel. "I don't know what they want her for, but whatever it is, it wouldn't be for our benefit."

Adel reached out over Atton's shoulder toward Mandalore, who took her hand after a hesitation.

"It's good to see you again, Jedi Exile," He said to her, before letting go of her hand.

Adel clung tightly to Atton when they neared the ship, and she began whimpering again. Atton pressed her head into him and set her down in the cabin. In the front, the pilot looked at them curiously, but asked no questions, and soon the loading ramp was lifted and the hatch closed. They were off.

As Atton assembled the lightsaber, Adel watched him work, and the former Sith assassin was reminded of a time, long ago, when Adel had taught him how to make his own lightsaber. In truth, she had merely sat there, watching him as he meditated. He had been nervous, and often faltered, but a quiet word and a tender smile would encourage him to follow what the Force was showing him. He ended up with a crude lightsaber handle, but a functional one, and after that, it only required a few tweaks in the design so that it was easier to hold.

_I made my first lightsaber,_ She told him as she tested his first weapon, _When I was eleven. I had just finished the matches and was struck with a vision. I knew it was time, so I went to the caves to find my first crystal. _She turned to him, switching the blade off. _I missed my classes the next day. I was compelled to. When the masters found me, I was assembling the last piece._

_Bet they weren't too thrilled that you ditched class in order to complete your little independent project._

She smiled. _No. But I was a good student, and did not disobey often. They accepted that the Force guided my hand. I made a good lightsaber, as you have,_ She handed the handle to him, _I think they were most surprised when I left for the war. I use to have more faith in the wisdom of the Council. And Mical…Mical wanted to be my padawan._

Back then, Atton had been consumed with jealousy. It was bad enough that Mical was on board and monopolizing all of the Exile's time, but then Nar Shaddaa happened and his dark past was being brought to light. He had not understood that Adel was baring her demons as well, that she had been confiding in him.

_I was something of a star, back at the Enclave. I was a promising student, with a lot of potential, and I trained with the best. Masters who would not deign to waste time on students when there is so much to do in the galaxy would halt in their tracks to teach me what they knew. I had less raw power than Revan, but I knew more than he did. He was a good fighter, and would make for a great warrior. I was…more well-rounded. I knew healing arts, a lot of things, really, and Mical wanted to study with me. That time, I was still a padawan—a student myself. It was preposterous, and yet not. Everyone thought I was going to be a knight soon, and Mical was two years younger than me. He still had two years to go, and during this year he wanted to wait for me to become a knight so he could study with me—going so far as to reject the tutelage of better, older, more experienced masters so that he would take his place at my side._

_How old were you? _Atton asked, incredulity breaking him from the fog of bitter envy temporarily.

_I was young._ Adel nodded. _I was thirteen going on fourteen when I left for the wars. I had excelled at everything, skipping levels to join padawans much older than me. Revan was twenty-one when I turned fourteen, but by that time we had shared so many classes together, neither of us really noticed. Or at least, I did not._

Atton then spent the rest of the time in a state of disbelief, not fully listening to what Adel said. When he was thirteen, he had not even gone through his growth spurt. To think a young girl would head into war like that…it was absurd. He looked at the woman next to him now and kissed her forehead.

"Do you remember how to do this?" He asked her, as he snapped a piece into place. "Hm?"

Adel did not respond at all.

_I was young, _Adel had said, _Too young to really understand what it means to care for someone other than myself. Even sacrificing my life for the galaxy is more of a fantastic imagining than true wisdom. I was able to leave Mical because I didn't really care to coach a padawan. He was so close to my age, and I was not even an adult myself. What did I know of teaching others, of caring for them personally? And then part of me figured that even if I had gone, Mical would have others to rely on. There had been other masters, back then. I didn't realize how important I was to him. That oversight…that ignorance, cost Mical his future. He had believed in me, had faith in me, had placed his destiny in my hands…and I let him down._

When Adel left for the Unknown Regions, Mical and Atton had a talk. Both men were grieving, and Atton had never been the considerate sort. It was the first time he witnessed Mical lose his temper, and for all Atton's teasing, it was also the first time he witnessed Mical give in to tears. Atton had lost the love of his life, but so had Mical, and twice. The Disciple had felt her abandonment all the more keenly because it had happened once before.

Seeing Mical cry made it possible for Atton to keep his composure, though Atton did not recognize it as such at the time. He belittled Mical for his perceived weakness, which caused the other to ignore Atton for days. Shortly afterward, Mical was leaving for Coruscant, and the two met once before his ship departed. Both loved the Exile, and neither of them could have her. United in their mutual hopelessness, they awkwardly reconciled, and ever since then, Atton only saw Mical through holo-transmissions.

The lightsaber was finished. Adel curled up on his lap to sleep. Her body was so relaxed that Atton could not remove her even if he wanted to. For the first time since she woke, her proximity to him woke a hot desire in his body. He shifted her so that she would not sense his unease.

As the ship hummed, Adel slept, and Atton thought back to the days when she would sit in the mess hall and look so tired that even Mandalore showed some concern. For all the glow from the Force, she was a woman with the weight of the galaxy on her slim shoulders, and more, she was unhappy and resigned to whatever the future planned for her. It was her strength that allowed her to swallow her burdens so no one else would have to bear them, so much so that in the end, when any one of them would die so that her destiny could be lifted even a little, not even an iron wedge could pry her lips open. The Exile cared for her companions, but could not open her heart to them. She remained a mystery and after the demise of the Sith Triumverate, a shadow of the past. She could not take joy in social activities and would often sit in the gardens of the Enclave, her eyes distant as if remembering lost times.

Atton caressed her hair, looking down at her peaceful countenance. She looked much better this time around, for all that she had gone through. There was a complete softness about her face, almost sagging in contentment. She was lucky that she was with friends now, that she was with Atton instead of someone more sinister…

_I wonder who that Jedi was that brought her back…_

Her eyeballs were moving quickly under her eyelids, suggesting that she was dreaming. Wondering if this meant progress, he slipped into her mind again. He found himself on the Ebon Hawk, with T3M4 moving back and forth, beeping and chirping as if to itself as it conducted regular maintenance. Adel, whose point of view he inhabited, was walking from the cargo bay to the med bay, to the bunk, and then to the cockpit, as if searching for something, or someone. The ship felt large and empty; she was alone with the droid, and he was walking through the mess hall, repeating the search, looking through all the cabins in search of companions who were left behind on Dantooine.

_A memory._ Atton realized. One of when Adel had already left. He sensed her forlorn, crestfallen loneliness, and the profound regret that she left in the first place.

This was not a happy memory. He reached to her and filled her with his love for her. Adel's mind wavered, and then suddenly the vision flickered and abruptly switched. Atton beheld himself, wearing a thin tunic and drinking out of a mug. He looked down at himself to see Adel's delicate hands on the table.

_What's wrong with Shara? _Atton heard her ask.

_Too plain._ He saw himself respond. _Something more exotic would be nice._

_Exotic doesn't mean better._

_Well do you really like Shara?_

A wave of ambivalence washed over Adel's mind, just as Atton realized, with a jolt, that this was the exact same scenario as one of his foggy dreams before Mira's arrival on Dantooine that he could not quite remember, except this was much more clear, and coming from Adel's point of view instead.

_How about Adel? _He saw himself suggest, as Adel appeared to rub her belly.

_But that's my name._

_So? We can have an Adel junior._

_That's horrible, Atton,_ Adel laughed, and Atton could not recall ever hearing her sound so happy in real life, _No. We must ensure that she is her own person._

Atton pulled out of Adel's mind with a gasp.

Was that conversation about what he thought it was about?

"Master Rand," Said the pilot, "We're arriving in Onderon."


	12. Chapter 12

Return to Life

Chapter 12

The last time Atton set foot on Onderon, the planet was stricken with Civil War. The Jedi Exile fought on the side of the Queen, opposing the treacherous Vaklu and gaining victory through Battle Meditation. All about were terrified and distraught civilians, many fighting to leave the planet to seek refuge in other parts of the galaxy, but no one had been allowed to leave or enter once the war began.

It has been several years since the end of the war. Onderon's economy thrived under Talia's reign. From his back, Adel made an odd cooing noise as they passed through the market square, looking unabashedly at the many colors and people as if she had never seen them before. Though they left before the crack of dawn from Dxun and it was only a one hour trip to Onderon, in Iziz it was already noon. Atton turned to note that the Mandalorian pilot had disappeared, no doubt to stock up on supplies and complete his own business.

The Jedi Master adjusted his hold on his precious burden, glancing up the ramp that led to the palace. There were guards posted there; regular civilians could not trespass palace grounds. Using the Force, he lowered Adel's head over her face so she would not be easily seen. Adel made a noise of complaint, but he hushed her, kissing the part of her chin that was exposed, and she relaxed.

"Tell Her Majesty that Atton Rand seeks her audience," He told the guard when he walked up to them.

"You're not expected." Said the guard, after a moment. "If you wish to speak with the Queen, send a letter to the office."

"Jedi Master Atton Rand," Atton gritted his teeth. "The situation is urgent."

His robes were poor, but he used one hand to lift the cloak so his lightsaber could be seen.

"Please deliver this message to the Queen."

After a moment's hesitation, one of the guards curtly nodded and headed up the ramp. Adel grabbed at Atton's hair to hoist herself up, but was unable to hold on, and she began falling over backwards. Atton quickly used the Force to push her against him, though he lowered her to the ground afterwards in order to look at her directly.

"Behave," He remonstrated gently, pulling her hood more securely over her head. Adel stared at him blankly from where she sat, as the guards watched.

It was difficult not to cry, to see the beautiful heroine reduced to this bizarre catatonia.

He shifted her to lean against his leg so she remained upright as he straightened his back. Adel began making repetitive cooing noises, though her expression did not suggest she was trying to speak.

"What's wrong with her?" One of the guards asked. "Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Atton replied, adding a fair bit of Force persuasion in order to avoid further questions. Adel, bored, poked her nose into Atton's leg.

He rubbed his face. He was still trying to get use to the whole situation. He felt like he was being crushed with worry and sorrow and elation, all at once. Releasing any of these to the Force only made them refill in his heart. _What a mess._

After what seemed like an hour, the soldier returned.

"Her Majesty will see you now, Master Jedi. This way, please."

This time, Atton picked Adel up in the front, carrying her bridal style. Adel protested with whimpers, grabbing Atton desperately as her sense of balance went off. She liked to remain upright, he found, or at least gradual tilting if she must lie prone. He kissed her on the forehead to apologize. She instantly fell silent, choosing to look around with wide eyes at the ornate halls.

_Stop comparing her to the Jedi Exile,_ Atton remonstrated himself as he followed the soldier, _She's traumatized, and of course she's not going to function the same as before. Keep with the present._

He was so lost in his thoughts that when he arrived before the Queen's court, he barely noticed.

"Master Rand," Queen Talia began, as her advisors stood in silent bemusement, "This is a surprise." Then her ivory features became white when her eyes met the bright orbs of Adel.

"We need your assistance," Atton said quickly, "Discretely, if you can."

The Queen looked at Adel for a moment longer, though she proved her worth when she did not say anything out loud. "Court is adjourned for today," She declared, "I must speak with the Jedi in private."

The court was no place for sensitive matters, however, and so the Queen met with Atton again in her personal chambers.

"What can I do?" She asked without preamble.

"The Sith are after her," Atton was whispering despite the safety of the quarters, "They want her back."

"They are attacking Dantooine?" Asked the Queen.

"Not all of them. There are enough who left in pursuit. We spent the last two days on Dxun, but it's not safe there. If they track our trail through hyperspace, we can't remain in this system. I need a ship that will take us to Nar Shaddaa."

Talia glanced at Adel, who returned her look with the same vapid stare she had been giving everyone and everything. A lesser woman would ask what was wrong with her, like the guards, but the Queen was wise enough to know when certain questions were unnecessary.

"Can they really trace you through hyperspace?"

"They have different technology. They can inhabit asteroids and monitor transmissions. Technology from the Unknown Regions…and I sense a warning through the Force…" There was a time when Atton would resent such a phrase, but that was before he realized just how potent the Force was.

Queen Talia's countenance darkened in thought, and even before she spoke, Atton knew he was not going to like what she was about to say.

"Onderon owes today to the Jedi Exile and her companions. I will not forsake you. However, my planet is far from its prime, for the Civil War has had its toll on my people and my government. In addition, Onderon has just responded to the call for aid from Dantooine, and our fleet has not returned. I have no ship that can take you to Nar Shaddaa without attracting the attention of this sector of the galaxy, nor can I spare any ship for that purpose. If you need to depart from the system, it will have to be through some other method, or at a later date at my convenience."

Atton blew out a breath, before sucking one in just as he sensed a ripple in the Force. Dread flooded his gut.

"They're here."

Talia blinked. "The Sith?"

"They're on the moon," He clutched Adel more tightly to him, "We left just in time." _I shouldn't have contacted Mira. _Did they intercept his transmission?

Talia swept out, demanding a report, leaving Atton alone in the room for a moment with the Exile. Adel buried her head to Atton's shoulder and he felt her eyelashes brush his neck as she closed them to sleep. She seemed completely oblivious to the danger, suggesting that she did not sense the disturbance in the Force.

_She has been sleeping a lot,_ Atton thought, while he thought quickly about how feasible it would be to escape to the other side of the planet. Perhaps he could steal one of the ships—perhaps he could steal a private ship rather than a government-issued one, because either way he was not going to let the Sith have Adel again—

Talia came back, her eyes bright with alarm. "Eleven meteors emerged into orbit around Onderon. Master Jedi—"

"I need to get Adel out of here!" He snapped, thinking quickly. Eleven meteors…

The Queen looked torn. "Will the Sith leave if you leave?"

Atton was not sure. "Contact the Council on Coruscant. Any war with the Sith will have to be fought with Jedi, but I cannot help you. They want Adel, and you can bet that it's not for our benefit. I need a transport and I need it as soon as possible. Can you arrange that?"

"Master Rand, when I said we have no ships to spare, I was not holding back. I have no ship for you."

_This is ridiculous! How can a Queen not have a vessel?_ "Not even a private flyer?"

She shook her head quickly. "No. My ship was damaged. It cannot enter hyperspace."

Atton cursed. They were running out of time. He needed to get Adel out of here before the Sith give up on Dxun. They did not know that Adel is now out of her invincible coffin. If they bomb Onderon…he woke Adel when he clutched her head against him. _Don't panic. Breathe. There must be a way out of this. _"What about Onderon? You can't tell me that you sent all of your ships to Dantooine?"

"Master Rand, the ships that are left behind are for defense purposes only. We have no ships with functional hyperdrives. Can't you Jedi mask your Force signatures? Perhaps it is possible to hide her in the palace?"

Atton gritted his teeth. Talia would not be happy to hear this, but he had to say it. "They were bombing Dantooine. They will bomb Onderon."

He ignored the Queen's look of horror to glance down at Adel. She was sleeping soundly, despite his pounding heart against her body.

"My planet is in danger," Said the Queen, "I'm sorry, but I need to go. You may come with me to oversee the situation if you wish."

"Yes," Said Atton, "I'll do that." He adjusted Adel's hood as he followed Talia out of her chambers. They ran down the corridors of the palace back to the court, where people have already assembled. Reports were streaming in via holo transmissions. At the activity, Adel jolted awake. She fidgeted, but Atton did not put her down.

_"These are large meteors, Command. Torpedoes only inflict surface damage. The cannons are buried beneath."_

"They have to go in orbit in order to maintain their position," Said the officer, "Mob them individually."

Atton turned to the Queen. "Contact the Telos Academy. There are Jedi there, perhaps some of them can be dispatched to defend Onderon."

"They won't get here in time."

Atton did not mention that the Mandalorians would simply have to hold them off until then, since the Queen still did not know that their camp was right on Dxun. "You have no other choice."

The Queen looked at Adel, and Atton knew she was thinking about handing the Exile over to pacify the Sith. He clutched his burden to him tightly at that. _Over my dead body…_

One of the officers suddenly reported, "We're being hailed. Republic ship and identification, requesting entrance into atmosphere."

_What? _It could not be Mical. Mical was coming from Ithor, and it would be another two days before he even arrived in the sector. With a frown, Atton reached out into the Force…

_No. _It could not be. _What?_

But the Queen was already giving the order. "Let it land. Can't cause more harm than the Sith, and it is a Republic ship._"_

Atton growled. What in the name of the Force had Mical been doing? Several officers rushed out to direct the ship's passengers from the landing pad. Atton reached for his comm, but Mical was still in hyperspace and the transmission did not connect. He reached down for his lightsaber, just in case, and deposited Adel gently on the bench away from the entrance, covering her with his cloak. Just then, the transmissions screeched.

"The Sith are jamming the signals," Atton's hand brushed against Adel's lightsaber at his belt, "If they're jamming signals here, that means they're on to us."

Talia looked at Atton's eyes in alarm. "What should we do?"

"We have to get Adel out of here." Atton glanced at the Exile's prone form. She was still sleeping deeply. "If she leaves than they will leave. There's not enough of them to remain behind on Onderon."

"Master Rand, we have no ships."

"Well then, let's hope the Republic visitor would allow us to hitchhike on hers."

"Hers?" Talia echoed. "Do you know who it is?"

Atton's face was grim. "Only too well."

The ground suddenly rocked.

"They're bombing Iziz." Atton found himself regretting that he removed Adel from her coffin. As the dust rained down from the ceiling, he dashed to her side. Adel woke from his jerky movements and moaned unhappily, but did not fight him as he covered her head with his own.

"Have the turret towers fire back," The Queen ordered, "They may be low enough if they're sending bombs toward us."

A fire sparked to life as another explosion rocked their world.

"Your Majesty! You have to get out of here! It is dangerous!"

"There aren't any safer places for me to be," The Queen responded vehemently, "And I won't stand to run when my planet is in danger!"

Just then, the door opened, and with it came the flood of a familiar Force presence. Atton whipped his head around.

"Get her up," Atris reached out, but Atton snapped his lightsaber to life and she barely withdrew her hand in time to avoid losing it. "Master Rand, we don't have time for this nonsense. Get her up. If you don't, this entire planet will get blasted to pieces. Get her on my ship. Go. Go!"

There were many people Atton would rather see than Atris, but he was going to take her offer for what it was, especially with Adel's life on the line. "If you try anything," He warned, grabbing Adel and lifting her, "I have a lot of experience torturing those like you."

"I don't doubt it, _Jaq,_" Atris sneered, gesturing briskly at the entrance.

"Jaq," Adel echoed, in the same exact tone.

Horror flooded Atton, and he pulled to a stop to stare down at her. Adel's eyes looked right into his, though her face remained blank, and he was pulled back into the dream he had. _No. I'm not Jaq. I'm not him any longer. Adel—_

_"Move _it!_" _Atris snapped, "Are you daft?"

Atton ran. Behind him, Atris yelled at the officers that once the Exile left orbit, the Sith will stop bombing the planet. With her past history, Atton could believe she had some inside information to make this claim with such certainty. Either way, though he was abandoning the planet to the Sith by leaving, Adel's well-being was all that mattered, and he was not going to remain here in the line of fire any longer than necessary. With the enhancement from the Force, he ran to the landing pad, Adel clinging to his neck for dear life. He sprang up the hatch and dashed to the cockpit, placing Adel quickly in the co-pilot seat.

"Jaq," Adel mumbled as she sat, her limbs twitching as she looked around.

The engines were still running, and he lifted the ship off the ground before Atris even closed the hatch. The Force warped around them as they ascended to the clouds. When the sky cleared to black, he brushed near a Sith asteroid and barely avoided a cannon blast. Suddenly, Atton was no longer in the cockpit of Atris's ship. He was on the floor, Adel was cradling him, a look of sheer desperation on her face.

_"You're alive," _He rasped, slurring a little, his throat wavering as he struggled to formulate words through the pain, _"Did I…save you yet?"_

She choked, and he felt her send soothing Force waves into him. It was comforting, even if it was not enough, because the energies were so imbued with her, with her presence and soul and will. All of the sudden, the pain seemed to matter so much less. She was here. She was alive.

_"Your eyes…that bad, huh,"_ He tried to smile, but his face split and he could not quite manage it. _"Always was ugly. Now the outside matches—"_ A well of blood swelled out of his mouth, its coppery taste foul and disgusting."_Was waiting for this, but...S' not fair... let you down..._"

_"Shhh... you've lost a lot of blood." _Adel sounded so steady, save that slight waver in her voice that told him she was breaking inside. She sounded so soft, so ethereal, like she was the wind itself, and Atton's heart felt full of warmth, knowing he was looking at the most beautiful being in the galaxy.

"_Was s'posed to save you. S' tired of living anyway... too many deaths..._" He winced, and felt his voice get softer as it became more difficult to speak, "_Never told you... lied to you..._" He chuckled, even though it hurt.

Like a goddess, Adel looked down upon him, her eyes tender and soft. _"I think we all saved each other... Visas, the Handmaiden, Kreia. And you, Atton." _She was no longer giving him Force energies. It was too late. She merely held him, bowing her head, and Atton rested in her arms like in the arms of salvation. Then a tear splashed onto his face, warm and purifying, and he knew he was causing her pain.

Self-loathing churned within him. Even now, at his final hour, he was causing Adel pain. He could not even get this right. His fists tried to clench, but he had lost one, and the other felt broken, shattered.

_"I don't want you to see me like this. I don't want to die in front of you. Can't bear it. Loved you from the moment I first saw you, thought you were a dream...meant every word... tried to play it off as a joke... wasn't funny..."_

His deliverer kissed him tenderly on his bloodied forehead, though her lips came away clean. And why not? She was too pure to be sullied even by Atton Rand.

_"All that was your past is forgiven, Atton," _She stated, a declaration that could not be denied because she was the Jedi Exile, the greatest being to ever walk this galaxy or to ever walk it thereafter. Her eyes looked down on him with a tenderness he had never seen directed at anyone else. A profound kind of peace settled over his heart. Adel was the will of the Force, and her words resonated in the universe like a song. _"Be still."_

He found himself laughing, even as it sent sharp pangs of agony through him. There was no way to tell Adel just how happy he was right now. His life was complete, his greatest wish fulfilled, and he could not imagine dying in a better way. _"Hurts when I laugh. Hurts...You... saved me... joke's on me..."_ He winced again as he chuckled, and felt his awareness dim even as his lips kept moving. _"Hurts when I laugh. Hurts..._"

Suddenly, the vision was pulled from his mind like a vacuum. The Dark Side of the Force dissipated as the ship yanked its occupants into hyperspace. Blinking, Atton turned to see Atris stepping back from the controls, while Adel whimpered on the floor. The older, white-haired woman was holding the Exile by the wrist, having dragged her from the co-pilot's chair.

Atton leaped from the pilot's chair, activating his lightsaber in a flash. In the vision he had lost his hand. He had similar plans for Atris. _How dare she…!_

Atris ducked back. "I can explain," And she let go of Adel. A bruise was already forming around her delicate wrist.

"You have ten seconds," Atton growled.

"The Exile can dispel the Dark Side. We have to touch her in order to keep ourselves free from the visions."

Atton glared at Atris for a moment, before deactivating his lightsaber. He looked at Adel, who was lying prone on the floor, blinking up at him miserably. _Must be that whole Goddess of Light thing with the Sith. _Except Adel did not have this ability before, not that Atton knew.

How did Atris know about this anyway? "This one of the things you Jedi neglected to tell her before you tried to kill her?"

The former Jedi historian folded her arms. "No. This was a recent ability she acquired from the Unknown Regions."

"How did you know this?"

Atris looked more tired than irritated. She was actually clad in civilian gear, Atton noticed, rather than the white Jedi robes she use to favor. She also did not have her lightsaber anymore.

"I was a historian," Said the older woman, "I studied Sith holocrons. I recognized the Exile's headdress."

"She has a _name_," Atton spat. "And if you know so much, you can tell me why she's practically a vegetable and has no Force presence."

"No Force presence?" Atris laughed derisively, unfolding her arms and leaning against the wall, "And you call yourself a Jedi Master."

Atton surged forward, grabbing her by the collar and slamming her into the wall she leaned against. "You will tell me what you know. I'm not in the mood for games."

"It's a long story," Atris smirked. "Your arm will get tired."

He let her go with a growl of disgust, and lifted Adel into his arms, kissing her forehead and soothing her. The Exile whimpered, though she soon quieted, and allowed Atton to carry her to the back of the ship where the bunks were.

"How did the Council release you?" He drawled, when he heard Atris following him. "Didn't think they'd allow a witch running about in the galaxy."

"Adel's grace," Said Atris, "One of your peers, Mical, I believe his name was, vouched for banishment as opposed to execution."

_Dang it Mical…schuttas…_

"I have a tracker," Atris went on, "So the Jedi know where I am at all times. If I try to remove it, it will remove my Force sensitivity." She shrugged. "They figured this was the better alternative."

"A shame," Atton muttered.

"You would think so."

"How did you come by Onderon?" Thinking back to what happened, he added, "You knew something like this was going to happen."

"I sensed I was needed. When I saw the Sith asteroids, I guessed why." Atris fell silent as Atton tucked Adel in.

"Jaq," Adel murmured, her eyes wide and bright as she looked up to him.

"No." Atton shook his head. "Not Jaq. Atton."

"Jaq."

Atton whirled around. "What is wrong with her, Atris?"

"Oh, so now you need my help—"

With the Force, he slammed Atris into the hull. Behind him, Adel whimpered. He released his anger so he would not scare Adel, but did not release his hold on Atris.

"Tell me, _now._"

"I don't know," Atris gritted her teeth, "I don't know what they did to her, or had to do. But she has Force sensitivity and she can sense the darkness in you just as well as you can sense the darkness in me."

In alarm, Atton dropped Atris—she did not matter anyway, and turned back to Adel, cupping her face between his hands and staring deep into her blank eyes.

"Adel, it's me, Atton. Remember me?" He pressed his forehead against hers, swallowing the horror he felt that Adel might have been thinking she was at the mercy of a Sith assassin all along. "You saved me. Remember? You saved me. You convinced me to start teaching."

Adel did not react.

"What is wrong with her?" Atton swallowed a sob. "Why is she like this? Why—why is she—"

Atris dared to inch closer, and Atton allowed her. She could not try anything without him beheading her on the spot, anyway.

"Her mind is…scattered."

He whirled, lightsaber ablaze. "Stay out of her head, you _schutta!_"

Atris stepped back and swallowed. "I was just looking to make sure she's there. I swear."

"Well next time you want to know, _ask_," Atton gritted his teeth.

"Oh, so _you _can invade her mind, but I cannot?"

"I'm the one with the lightsaber, you old witch," Atton sneered, and he allowed the lightsaber to hum for a moment before turning it off. "Is there any way to _un_scatter it?"

"That depends."

"Depends on _what?_"

"On what scattered her mind." Atris stepped forward but seemed to think better of whatever she wanted to do. "If her mind was broken by torture, then no. If her mind was broken by long-lasting drugs, then it is possible she could make a full recovery."

Recalling the puncture marks on Adel's arm, Atton turned. "She was definitely drugged. What should we do?"

"Have her tested in a medical facility."

Atton glanced at the floor, suddenly realizing he neglected to ask one crucial question. "Where are we going?"

Atris smiled wistfully. She looked very old and weary.

"Telos," She said. "We are going to Telos."


	13. Chapter 13

Return to Life

Chapter 13

"This is _my _ship," Atris muttered, but did not put up more of a protest when Atton ordered her out of the bunk chamber. He sent a wave of Force suggestion at Adel to get her to rest. Today had been a grave shock to Adel's system, or perhaps it was a great shock to Atton's, but either way, sleep could not hurt, and Adel seemed to need a lot of sleep lately anyway. Adel's eyes fluttered closed willingly, and her face smoothed to that same expression as it was when she had been in the coffin. Unnerved, Atton kissed her cheek hoping this would inspire a different expression.

She smiled a little. Better. Feeling a little reassured, Atton left her side.

"What do you know about Adel?" He demanded, once the chamber was closed. The ship was old, reminding him slightly of the Ebon Hawk, though its layout was more modern. "And don't try to be funny."

Atris did not. "She was chosen, somehow. That headdress in your backpack was what the Sith used to crown their Goddess of Light. They believe her coming signals the Empire's time of triumph."

"They sealed her in a coffin. That's a strange way to worship a goddess."

"They are Sith," Atris sneered, "They perceive the Light Side of the Force to be inferior, even if it is necessary, the way they perceived slaves to be inferior and necessary. There was, however, a series of trials through which they determine if their acquisition was the real Goddess of Light, or so their prophecy illustrated."

"What trials?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I can only give you an approximate translation of the criteria. _She will come in the form of one who is immune to that which gives her strength, is focal to those around her and focal to the Force. A glow that draws the darkness to her instead of casting it away; the birth of life lies in what she was._ Presumably, 'immune to that which gives her strength' meant the Exile's deafness to the Force, 'focal' meaning her ability to make connections to those around her, including you,"

"How did they prove all of this?"

"I don't know. I wasn't at the Unknown Regions," Atris grimaced, "I know only what I learned from the holocrons."

"Well what did they intend to do to her?"

"Again, I cannot say for sure, but the most logical assumption is that they want to make her their focal point. She is a source. Through her, they can all be connected and grow stronger for it. Did you never wonder how you were able to achieve so much, the random lot of you from all walks of life? For better or for worse, the Exile brings out the best in those around her. It was due mostly to her personality and character—one's affinity and relationship to the Force is, after all, linked to their will and heart. As a student, she was always reaching out to others, drawing them in with her charm," The white-haired woman turned her face away, "It use to seem solely for her benefit, but I now know it works both ways. Had she been dark, she would not be nearly as useful, but as she is, when she reaches out, she boosts others, supports them and strengthens them, nurturing them, creating a symbiotic link. You love her because she loves you, and no matter how much you love her, you cannot love her more than she loves you. _That _is the power the Sith hope to harvest, and she does not have to be herself to accomplish that. Brainwash her, render her childlike and trusting, and she will support anyone around her."

"It doesn't work that way," Atton protested. "We aren't linked to each other because she made us. We're linked to her because we actually cared about her, and were willing to set our differences aside for her sake. It was a two-way street."

Even Kreia sometimes held her tongue to spare Adel's feelings, and that was a witch who almost never cared what impact her words had on others.

"It was different with your lot," Atris was a little exasperated, "Though if you are dissatisfied, by all means. I have no desire to debate with you."

"How is it different?" Atton demanded.

With a sigh, the former Jedi yielded, "You cared about her, and so you made her stronger, as well. Perhaps it even saved her life. The Sith have no intention of making her stronger that way. Whatever they did unlocked her senses to the Light Side, but she is hardly their warrior, or knight. She is the reservoir from which _they _draw their powers. All they have to do is make her love anyone she sees, unconditionally, and confine her to a place where she would only meet Sith."

Atton paused. "Conditioning," He said almost absentmindedly. "This must have been what the Sith were really waiting for."

The other blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The test," He began pacing, as the pieces came together in his mind, " They were waiting out in the Unknown Regions, as the galaxy dissolves into war. The Jedi Council knew that the Sith were behind it, the True Sith—so they didn't want any one to come out. They were right, but not completely; the Sith weren't waiting for everyone to destroy each other, or at least that wasn't the only thing they were sitting it out for—they were waiting for their Goddess to show herself. And she did. She rejected the Force and wandered for ten years before reaccepting the Force and heading out to the Unknown Regions to face the True Sith—right into their waiting arms. The test was orchestrated long before Adel even left." He turned to the woman. "By trying to prevent this whole scenario, we handed the True Sith the one weapon they were waiting for all along."

If Atris agreed with his theory, she did not show it. Her face was impassive, and her eyes a bit glazed, as if she had lost as much sleep as Atton had. It was surprising how old she appeared, how worn, and Atton could even bring himself to feel some pity for this wretched woman who had undergone losses of her own.

"The most important thing now is the Exile," She said, "The Sith will not stop until they get her."

"That much is obvious." He checked the navicomputer. Nine hours until they reached Telos.

"Why are you helping us?" He then asked. "What do you have to gain?"

Atris smiled wistfully. "You weren't there, so you wouldn't understand what it's like. You forget that I was a Jedi, that I trained in the same salles and meditated in the same gardens. I saw her ascend, from a stumbling child to a knight strong enough to make the decision I could not. You never saw how, at the final hour as I laid at her feet, defeated at her hands and by all rights, deserving of execution or worse, she fell to her knees and pleaded to _me_. And from your reaction to my presence, you never knew that since the fall of the Sith Triumverate, during her remaining stay in the known galaxy she had been transmitting messages to me, inquiring after me, begging me to give her some sign that I was well and still alive." She looked away. "I never replied."

It sounded like something Adel would do. She always cared about those she met. Sometimes too much. Atton resisted the urge to smack his forehead in frustration. Sometimes he wished Adel would care a little less.

"Perhaps these are just the sentiments of a foolish old woman," The former Jedi historian went on, her eyes distant, "But I never quite believed she was not a Jedi until I heard she left for the Unknown Regions. Even when the Council exiled her, part of me mourned the loss of someone I thought to be the only true Jedi among us. One who embodied all the virtues we strove for: honor, integrity, courage, wisdom, selflessness, responsibility, chastity. For all my words to her, she was the only person I thought of as a Jedi—everyone else was just like me, fakes, men and women striving for that which we were meant to symbolize, but never reaching it. But the Jedi Code did not encourage love, for love fosters nepotism and that cannot be condoned in the Jedi Order. When she left, I realized that she was the only person who made me feel…cared about. She thought of me, remembered me, worried for me, even after everything that happened, and when she left I realized that I had lost the one person to whom I actually mattered. A sister I never knew I had. Even when gone and out of her mind, she is still looking out for me through her children, her legacies, you padawan learners who followed her to the darkest parts of the galaxy—that Mical who granted me clemency in her name. That kind of bond, that kind of consideration, is not something the Jedi are capable of—not those in the Order I belonged to. I do not deserve mercy, but I intend to use it nonetheless."

Atris's eyes met his. "Sometimes we are saved, not because we deserve it, but because we are being granted a chance to earn it. I do not ask you to like me, Master Rand. I only ask you to trust me on the matter of the Exile."

She was telling the truth, heartfelt and heartsick. The lines of her face were from years of emotional anguish. He sensed her determination and felt a kinship to her. Here was another person who had fallen once, and had been redeemed by the Exile. Adel had once cared for her, had worried about her, and he could sense that Atris cared about Adel in return. For all her transgressions, Atton was willing to allow Atris a chance to help her deliverer. Especially when her aid might make all the difference.

"We are being followed," Atris suddenly said. "I can feel it in the Force."

Atton did not sense this, but Atris was older than him and more experienced in these matters. "We have allies on Telos who might be willing to give us sanctuary, at least temporarily, but if the folks following us is lodged on another group of asteroids we cannot stay there long."

"What allies?"

"Ithorians. Their leader is Chodo Habat. Adel once helped save his life and his herd from the Czerka Corporation and the Exchange. The reason Telos is still green anymore is because of Adel. He will help her somehow. They have to. But we have to act fast. Can you sense how far away the Sith are?"

"A mere ten minutes, approximately. I cannot say for sure, but they are not far behind us."

"We need to be able to find Chodo Habat _immediately _when we land on Telos. Last time Adel and I were there, we got held up by Telos security, and afterwards Chodo Habat was the one who found _us._"

"If we divert from Telos as soon as we arrive, we can spare sending a message to arrange for a future meeting time."

"If the Sith can intercept transmissions, that would not be a secure way to ensure our escape."

"I still have contacts at the Telos Academy. They will be able to deliver the messages in person."

Atton considered this. "That will work."

"Where should we go next?"

Atton glanced briefly in the direction of the bunks. "The last time we went to Telos was when the Sith exploded Peragus II. We can stop at the edge of the debris field before doubling back." He sat down in the seat to plot the coordinates into the navicomputer.

"I'll compose the message so we can transmit as soon as we arrive," Said Atris.

Silence descended in the cockpit as both occupants went to work. It had been years since Atton had plotted coordinates for the Jedi Exile. He felt an intense wave of nostalgia at the thought.

"I've programmed to send it as soon as we leave hyperspace," Atris announced, jolting him out of his reverie, "This decreases the chances of it being tracked by our pursuers, since it would be transmitted before they exit hyperspace after us." She rose from her seat and exited the cockpit.

"Where are you going?" Atton asked, quickly following her.

"I am preparing myself a meal," Atris drawled, as she entered what Atton realized was the main lounge, "Between chasing you to Onderon and being chased out of Onderon, I have not eaten for the last two days. The Exile might do well with some sustenance as well."

"She has a name," Atton exclaimed again, "You managed to use it at least once before. Why do you keep referring to her as the Exile?"

Atris looked pensive for a moment.

"The name…the title…it has come to mean more to me than its original definition." She turned away to grab the cans of preserved vegetables, meats, and rice. "It stopped being a mark of shame and ignominy and became something symbolizing…valor. The strength to leave home and all that was safe and known. Calling her Adel…it usually feels too personal. I did not walk with her or help her in times of need. Not like you did."

Fair enough. As long as it was for the right reasons, Atris could call Adel whatever she wanted.

"Something watery will probably be better for her," He told the woman as she began preparing.

She nodded, looking worn and heartsick, and Atton found himself pitying her. Once upon a time, he had been in the same position, walking down the wrong path and realizing all too late. The difference was that he had these years and Adel to help him redeem, and Atris had only started. Atton had once felt just as hopeless and disillusioned.

Adel might never recover. Atris might never find the clemency she sought from the Jedi Exile, because the Jedi Exile might really be dead after all, leaving behind a shell to taunt them with. Yet all of the sudden, Atton was struck with the realization that Adel might have been right all along, that teaching was truly the greatest way to leave behind a legacy. It ensured that even if Adel herself could not help this wretched ex-Jedi, her former padawans would carry on her philosophies and would save Atris.

As long as the Lost Jedi remain, as long as the padawans of the Jedi Exile continue to build the Order and train new knights and masters…Adel will live on, through their actions and their compassion. It was something he wished Adel knew before she left for the Unknown Regions, that she had made a difference in the galaxy and this difference was a profound one that would be felt for thousands of years to come.

Yet even if she did not…it was enough that what she left behind…exists.

"I'm going to check on her," He said to Atris, who only nodded again. Turning away, he headed toward the bunks. If the Force was fair at all, then even if Adel did not know when she left for the Unknown Regions, she would eventually learn now, once she has recovered. They will fight the Sith like the old days and then Atton will take her away to a far away planet all to themselves, and he will take care of her and they will have that child he saw.

It will be a good life. And he will fight for it, for her. It was about time someone fought for her, and he did not mind doing it. Not at all.


	14. Chapter 14

Return to Life

Chapter 14

Peragus II had always been one of those places the Republic sent to punish people who had not done anything strictly wrong, but were still very annoying, so Atton thought it was strange that he should feel nostalgic upon seeing the debris field that was once the mining facility. Maybe it was because it was when he first met the Jedi Exile, or maybe it was just the place where his life changed its course. Or perhaps it was that after so many years as a Jedi and then a Jedi Master, Atton found a heart he did not know he had, and he could feel the loss of the many innocent lives at the facility. Between Adel's haunted past, the Sith pursuers, the Republic's corruption, and the reestablishment of the Jedi Order, he had never considered that all those who once worked at the mines are now forever lost and forgotten. Their deaths did not seem important at the time, not when he and Adel had been fleeing for their own lives and then fighting for the life of the very galaxy itself, but that anonymity…they did not deserve that.

Adel, who spent most of hyperspace sleeping, woke as soon as they exited into normal space. She stared out at the screens that showed the debris field and twitched and jerked oddly, as if responding to some invisible stimuli. When Atton folded his arms around her, she shuddered, uttering a low whimper.

Atris watched all this solemnly.

"She is reacting to the place," Said the former Jedi Master. "Something in her remembers this place. What exactly happened here?"

"I was not with her most of the time," Atton admitted, and found himself feeling a little ashamed. When they first met, he had still been a selfish scoundrel, unaware of what kind of person Adel was. She had to face the droids on her own, when it was something Atton should have done. Instead he had been keeping himself safe at the administrative consoles. "I think this was the place where she first regained her Force sensitivity, after the years of exile."

Atris nodded. "That would be an adequate trigger."

Eager to get out of this graveyard, which was really little better than the mess of Malachor V, Atton took the ship back into hyperspace so they could return to Telos.

"How are the Sith doing?" He asked Atris.

"So long as we're shielding, they are not certain where we are," Atris replied, "I do not sense them following us. It is possible that we lost them."

"Good," Said Atton, "We'll do some hopping around, but I want to be able to settle down on a planet for a while and get her looked at."

She nodded.

"Jaq," Adel said.

"Why does she keep calling me that?" Atton sighed, running his fingers through his hair, "She's never called me Jaq before."

Atris cautiously knelt in front of where Adel was curled up on Atton's lap. When Atton did nothing to dissuade her, she gently took Adel's face in her hands and looked into her eyes. It was a mind probe, similar to the one Atton used when he and Adel had been on the ship to Onderon from Dxun, but it was slightly different because Atris was not concealing the fact that she was entering Adel's mind. Adel stared steadily back, and the two women gazed at each other for a while in silence.

The white-haired woman let go of Adel, who blinked, as if clearing her vision.

"Well?" Atton asked.

"She's living through Peragus. There are many parts of her mind operating at once, some of them…conflicting, and all of them sedate, in a way. Part of her is heading through the tunnels with a vibrablade, another part is wondering who the two of us are, a third is afraid that something is coming after her and a fourth is thinking of Revan."

That actually sounded like a major improvement from what Atton had seen before. He told as much to Atris.

"Hm," Said the woman, "Perhaps the solution is to take her to places that are familiar to her. Or perhaps it is merely a matter of time."

Adel turned to stare at Atton unblinkingly, the gaze so unnerving that he wanted to turn away to avoid it, but he maintained the look through the same force of will that prevented him from dying as long as there was someone on his team still alive.

"Hey," He called to her softly, "What's going on in there? What are you thinking now?"

Adel continued staring.

"I sense we should go into the debris and turn off the engines," Atris suddenly said. "In the debris field it would be difficult for them to differentiate our ship from the rest of the ruined moon, as long as we both hide our Force presences. Double shielding, my layer and yours. How good is your shielding?"

Not as good as before, and certainly not as good when there was no other person around. If there were other life forms, he could hide by counting cards, but pazaak would certainly draw someone's attention, and his other shields were a bit flimsy.

"Then my layer will be the outer layer," Said Atris, "I have decent shields, having been masking the entire Telos Academy for a decade. That way we minimize catching their attention in the first place. It will have to be homogoneous with the rest of the force presences here, or else they could detect a void."

"I will do my best," Atton murmured dubiously.

Adel reached out to grab his upper sleeve. "It's like water," She stated, "Water over your brain."

"What?" Atton asked, feeling a mixture of joy and dismay; joy because Adel had never said so many words before, and dismay because…what was she talking about? "I don't understand you."

"It…" Adel's countenance twisted in exertion as she struggled to articulate, "It washes over…over your mind."

"I know," Atton said sympathetically, "I know you've been through a lot, sweetheart."

"No!" Adel snapped, pouting in frustration—the first time she displayed any temper since she woke from that dreadful coffin. "You! You! Water over your…mind!"

When Atton still did not understand, Adel burst into tears while letting a loud yell of desperation.

"Whoa! Easy," Atton hushed her, "Look, I'm sorry, but uh, be patient." It was so strange to be saying this to Adel, but then, perhaps she was feeling as open, vulnerable, and impulsive as she looked. "Whatever you have to say, say it slowly."

"Water."

"Water?"

"It's like water."

"The shield," Atris broke in, "She is talking about the shield. 'Like water washing over your mind'."

"What the Sith does that mean?"

"You have to let the Force wash over your mind, like water," The white-haired woman explained.

"Yes," Said Adel, "Like water. Washes you away."

"Notice you were unable to detect her force signature," Atris elaborated, "It feels muted, barely there. She has been masking herself. Not very well; the Sith are still tracking her, but that is probably because of the state of her mind." She shut her eyes and entered a brief meditation. "There. I have done the first layer. Now it is your turn."

Atton had no idea what was going on, but he closed his eyes and tried anyway. _Wash me away…whatever that means._ He knew he had a Force signature, and after a few tries, felt it dilute all around him until it was nearly imperceptible.

"Well, you did it to yourself, not this entire ship," Atris remarked dryly. "At least you got it, I suppose."

Atton did it again, until everything was diluted across the debris field.

"I am going to turn off the engines," Atris told Atton, "We should wait here for a while."

Speaking from the Force again. Atton was getting a little tired of this.

"What if the Sith are clouding our vision?" He asked. "They have as much influence over it as we do."

"We are safer here than we would be on Telos right now," Atris snapped, "Even without the Force, can you deny that?"

It was true. They were hidden in the debris field, one of the many ships that were scattered about, force presences diluted amidst the echoes of the death of the planet. Really, the only places that would be better than this in terms of hiding were either Korriban or Malachor V.

Atton was not going to take Adel to either of those places.

Atris turned off everything except life support, though she turned off all the lights on the ship so none of it would escape the windows. Adel shuddered when they all felt the pulse of Sith entering real space.

This was absolutely…they were just sitting here, waiting and hoping the Sith would not notice them.

"This water thing better work," Atton whispered to Atris, even though in the vacuum of space, his words would not carry over to them without a transmission of radio signals. Adel shuddered, clearly frightened, as the asteroids began orbiting the debris field. They were much larger than Atris's ship, and the three could clearly see them through the windows.

Then part of the debris field exploded in a burst of fire that was quickly extinguished in the vacuum. Shrapnel splattered against the ship a moment later.

"Sith," Atton muttered, as Adel began whimpering in genuine terror. This was not good. This was not good at all. "The shields are down. If they keep doing that and hit us we'll die in seconds."

"Why are they risking her like this?" Atris wondered. "They could kill her if they shoot like that."

"They don't know she's out of the coffin now."

"Sith," Atris cursed, making Atton feel momentarily gratified that the ex-Jedi was capable of swearing.

There was a loud thunk after the asteroids blasted another part of the debris field. Both Jedi anxiously listened for the tell-tale hissing that would signal a hull breach, but luckily there was only silence.

Adel's breathing quickened in panic, her knuckles white as she clutched Atton's robes. Her own shields began to slip, and the Force silently gave a warning that she was about to break cover.

Atton quickly took her hands in his. "Easy!" He called to her, trying to quell his own panic, "Here here here, listen to me, look at me," He turned her eyes to look at him, "Think other thoughts. Look,"

He had to distract her somehow.

"Look, this is Peragus. Remember Peragus? This is where we first met. The first time I saw you, you were in your underwear."

Atris cocked an eyebrow at this; she did not know this tale.

"I was locked up in a cell when all of the sudden you came running in. Do all Jedi wear such horrid underwear or was it just you?"

Surprisingly, Adel suddenly giggled. "Eyes up here," She said.

"That's right," Atton blushed. _Oh, so she chooses to remember _that_, of all things. _"You freed me, and then helped that droid open up the hangar bay. And then brought the old crone along…ugh…" He trailed off, realizing that this was not exactly a quieting and peaceful memory. "Hey, remember on Dantooine, my first time trying to teach a group of padawans? They were all staring at me like I was crazy and looking at you like they were begging you to take over the class instead."

The ship rocked violently, so that Atris lost her balance and toppled into a wall. Adel shrieked and buried her face into Atton's chest.

"They hit the shield generator," Said Atris, "But they have not aimed toward us yet."

"Is that supposed to be good or bad?" Atton drawled, righting himself as the white-haired woman rose to her feet.

"They are circling around…" She noted.

Adel suddenly pointed her finger. In the distance, something glowed. The asteroids immediately fired in its direction.

"Did you see that?" Atton exclaimed, as the ship was sprayed with more dust, "Did you see what she just did?"

"Yes," Atris murmured, "I saw."

The asteroids suddenly warped into hyperspace and disappeared.

Atton stared at Atris. "What just happened?"

Adel suddenly sagged in his arms as she fainted.


	15. Chapter 15

Return to Life

Chapter 15

Adel was sitting on a tall rock overlooking a waterfall. The roar of the currents below were both deafening and tranquil, sort of like the Force, except the Force was much much louder, filled with so much stimuli that Adel had never even experienced before she went out to the Unknown Regions. She felt the hopes and dreams of thousands of years of past Jedi and thousands of years of future Jedi, the longings of the Sith that came and went and will be, the sorrows and disappointments and victories and joys of trillions, quadrillions of sentients living and dead and yet to be born. She sensed the coming and going of stars, planets, moons and comets, the mighty universe that was ever growing, streaming through her brain and filling it until it scattered into the vastness of the dimension. More so, she saw alternate universes, galaxies where the Force did not exist, places where life lived in a void empty of its song and music.

For a long time she did not exist, lost in the expanse of all she was exposed to, and then for a time there had been a brief reprieve, when all of the sudden her shields were able to snap into place and she was able to assemble something of herself back to where it was. She managed to understand that she was with…what was his name? Atton? Jaq? Rand? And that he loved her very very deeply, and that some lost, forgotten part of her loved him equally so, but they were threatened, and the Dark Ones were coming, and she used all her strength to send them in another direction and—

And here she was. Sitting by a waterfall, listening to the roar of the waters crashing below.

"You should not be here."

Nothing could actually hurt Adel—this much she had always known, even when she had been nonexistent, for what could destroy something that does not exist? She turned to behold a pale, handsome man, in his thirties, tall and strong, dressed in sweeping black robes like…she was not sure what they were like. His eyes were brown and his hair was dark and long, sweeping past his shoulders. There was a calm about him, and she could sense that he loved her as much as…Jaq, or Atton, or Rand, did. However, at the moment, she had no memory of feeling anything in return for this blackly-clad man, not the way she had for Atton, or Rand, or—

The man next to her sat down next to her, looking at her steadily.

"What are you doing here?" He asked softly, gently. "You should be out in the living world, not here. So many need you out there, and you need them."

Her body twitched as she saw, with a sudden flash, the handsome man replaced by a walking corpse for a brief millisecond. His skin switched to gray for that short moment, and was covered with scars, as if he had been hacked to pieces and put back together. His robes were bone; his torso was bear and he wore only a set of dark trousers. His hair was also gone, and one of his eyes had no iris and looked blind. A deep set darkness and pain emanated from his being, anguish and anger and hate rolled and merged and melded together.

Then he switched back, and was handsome and whole again, but Adel felt uneasy—for him, because she was certain he was once like that, however whole he appeared now, and she could feel his pain.

She reached out and touched his face. It was smooth and soft, and she pressed, hoping to convey that she cared about him, that she understood, that she could _feel _it.

He slowly raised his hand and pressed her hand against his cheek.

"Exile," He murmured, and lowered his head, "How the galaxy will mourn when you truly leave."

He took her hand and lowered it, but grasped it in both of his own.

"You should not be here, Adel. What is wrong?"

What is—

_Tired, so tired. Exhausted weary drained fatigued enervated spent worn limp dead—_

She toppled toward him, and he caught her.

"Exile," He murmured, sounding sad, and sighed. "Very well. Rest for a while. I will shield you for a while."

Abruptly, the waters transformed, and they were no longer sitting by a waterfall but by a quiet lake. The man cradled her in his arms and they watched the surface glimmer for a while. In the relative silence, Adel felt some of her mind returning.

"I want to die," She murmured, "I am so tired."

"I know, Exile," He said, caressing her face with his broad hand, "I am sorry. You have accomplished more than those ten times your age, and endured the same. Had I been able to take away your pain then…but the Sith were not known for generosity."

"I want to stay here," She said, "With you." It was so nice here, so serene, peaceful, harmonious, safe. Just the steady rhythm of the lake's waves lapping against the shore, hardly loud enough to really notice.

She felt his lips against her forehead.

"The Fool takes good care of you," He sounded pained, "Will you leave him?"

The Fool?

"_Atton is, as always, the fool. And the Force watches out for ones such as him, I feel._"

She tensed.

Atton.

"He was a shell of a man, until you came, and now he fights hard, lest he return to that shell of a man once you leave," The man said quietly. "If you leave him a second time, he will be overcome with grief, and pass into this realm in tears and pain."

"But I am so tired," Adel insisted, "How can I live for him when I am so tired?"

"Heal," Said the man, "Learn to close yourself from the Force, as you had long ago. After serving it as you have done, it will now serve you. There is no need to listen to its will, for its will is yours, and it will protect you and those you love simply because you wish it."

Adel did not understand, but it felt nice to be cradled against him, head pressed against his chest, listening to his—

No, there was no heartbeat. He was not alive.

Images flashed before her eyes. Tall, dark, menacing Sith Lord _Darth Sion "Did you come here for answers? There are none. The call of Korriban is strong, but it is the call of the dead. It is fitting you came here"_ Lightsabers flashing revive Dark Side _"I hate you because you are beautiful to me, and in that weakness lies death" _pain fear anger sorrow despair hate loathing derision love love love love—

"Adel?"

Sion's voice broke through the roaring in…her ears. There was a roaring in her ears, because it was not the waterfall since there was still that lake in front of them and nothing else could be roaring. Sion was holding her face tightly in his hands, looking into her eyes. Adel was trembling, and she hooked her fingers around his wrists, though not to tug them away. She struggled to stop trembling.

"I use to be stronger than this," She whispered.

"No," Sion said softly, "You are strong, but the hardships you have endured are taking their toll. Even a goddess cannot defeat a race of Sith on her own in mortal form."

Memories of injections, of the Dark Side pummeling at her mind, day in, day out, subject to visions of hundreds of different alternate realities, seeing Atton die, over and over and over again from injuries that had never been, seeing him go to the dark, seeing him look at her with yellow eyes, Mical, dying, Mical, turning from the Light, Mical, losing hope, giving in to anger, Bao-Dur, Visas, traumatized, Mira, Brianna, Telos, Nar Shaddaa, the refugees, the soldiers, the citizens, the galaxy—

"Adel," Sion called to her, "I cannot help you here. None of us can help you here. This place is the Force, and it is the Force that overwhelms you now. You have to go back."

Tears spilled from her eyes. "I do not want to go back."

"You are loved there."

"I am too tired to love."

"You do not have to love," Sion said quietly, "Not until you are better, but you can only get better in the Living Realm, where there is healing and growth and life."

"Am I not loved here?" She wanted to stay by this lake. It was better here, far better here than in the real world where there was so much…_emotion._

"Kreia and I are waiting for you," Said Sion softly, "As are many of your Jedi friends who died before they could turn. But this is not the time for you to join us, and I cannot keep the Force away from you for long."

Soon the lake will be a waterfall again, crashing, crashing, crashing, and then perhaps it will get louder and louder and louder, until she was deafened and yet still hearing, and then her mind would scatter once more into the infinite points of the Force.

"Just close yourself from the Force, Adel," Sion said to her softly, "You are goddess, not servant. You do not serve the Force—not anymore. It will serve you, but you have to go back. You have to heal. There is no more work for you, but there still is for those you have touched, those you have helped, those you have taught. They need you to be there so they know what to do and how to do it. Adel, just a little longer, and soon you will be whole again. You will be blessed and healed and strong in both body and mind. Remember the child you were promised—the life you were promised—those without the Force have other joys and sorrows for you to partake. Your line will be gifted, Adel, your life will be blissful, Adel, if only you give it another try. Another try. Another try."

She suddenly wondered why Sion was the one here and not Kreia. Sion barely knew her. Sion only fought her in life, whereas Kreia—where is Kreia? Anxiety seized her, and she tensed, searching. Is Kreia here?

"Exile."

The lake became a meadow with the new presence, now even quieter than the stagnant waters. Kreia looked as she always had, golden brown robes draped over her body and a hood that obscured her eyes. Seeing her brought Adel a sense of comfort she could not explain, especially as the signature of her old mentor felt lighter, somehow, less restless and more…content.

But worried. Everyone seemed to be worried.

"I am here," Kreia said, sliding her fingers to interlock with Adel's. "I was always here."

"I failed," Adel said quietly, a deep sense of despair rising in her, "I failed. They trapped me, and I fought them but lost. I could not stop them."

"You were never meant to, not in that way," Kreia said soothingly, "I once told you that you did not have to go. To go was certain death. You are alive. You have not failed."

"I do not understand what happened."

"You took on the duties of a goddess, Exile. They forced you to see, to know what is seen and known by those who never die—it would kill a normal man and shatter those less than you, but you are here and capable of being healed."

"Why do I have to go back?"

"It is for yourself as well as for the galaxy we left behind."

"I do not remember how to close myself to the Force."

"You do," said Kreia, "Atton will remind you. It is instinct, written in your being—that defiance that made you shun the Force rather than submit to it. That defiance that maintained the integrity of who you are and how you choose." She raised her head so her white eyes were visible. "Those who adhere to the Light because they were told to do so, cannot withstand the trial of difficult choices, Exile. You have always known yourself, in your heart, even if not in your mind, and that was always what made you different from the other Jedi—you refuse to be told what to do and how to think. Instead, you did, and thought, based on your own heart and the principles you taught _yourself_. Someone like you, so defined, so enlightened, has not been seen in the galaxy, nor will be seen again—and someone like you does not deserve to enter the Force scattered, as you are now. The Sith have torn you, shattered you, but you are resilient, and if you return to the living world you will mend as if you were never broken—and that is our hope, those of us you have saved."

"I do not like it," Said Adel, "Exile. I do not like Exile. I want a home."

This time Kreia smiled. It looked rather odd, because it was so genuine and not the least bit wistful or sarcastic as it usually had been when she was alive.

"No, you are the Exile no longer," She said. "You are not without home, young one. You have many homes, all begging for you to return to them. That is your destiny now—that is the destiny you chose when you ventured out into the Unknown. Go and fulfill it."

Sion stroked her hair, and Adel looked at him to ask, "Are you still in pain anymore?"

"You saved me, remember?" He replied.

This was all very strange.

The meadow had become a lake again, and the lake was twisting, morphing, extending, the waters running faster and faster and faster, until the waterfall crashed down to the rocks below, the roar loud yet tranquil. Whatever Sion had done to change the scenery had lost its effects.

She made the decision to leave just before her thoughts began to scatter, far into the sky and carried away by the currents. Sion's arms were strong around her and Kreia's hands held her own tightly, but Adel was drifting, and she heard frantic murmurings, a familiar voice calling her, frantic. _"Sweetheart? Sweetheart are you alright? Son of a schutta, Adel? Adel please don't do this to me, I can't bear it if you leave me again please please please please please_—"

She opened her eyes. Who is this man again? Atton? Rand? "Jaq?"


	16. Chapter 16

Return to Life

Chapter 16

Whatever Adel did lured the Sith away, and not to Telos. She woke up moments after fainting, appearing none the worse for wear, but no matter what Atton or Atris tried, she refused to make a sound other than her initial confused utterance, and her mind was once again scattered in a mess of images, sound, sensation, and lights.

They went to the Telos Citadel with no improvement.

"This is Jedi Master Rand," Atton spoke into the comm when they were hailed, "Requesting permission to dock."

He waited, expecting some request about ship frequency number, but the officer merely replied, _"Permission granted. Please proceed to terminal four."_

The reason was made apparent when Mical stood in the docking bay, waiting for them with his arms crossed.

"Mical?" Atton blinked, wondering what manner of Force shenanigans informed Mical that he would be on Telos instead of somewhere near Onderon.

"Mical!" Adel chirped brightly, and extended her arms out toward the blonde, nearly making Atton drop her when she leaned forward.

Mical, who had been wearing an expression of pure annoyance, looked like someone physically struck him.

"Oh," He stammered, blinking in confusion, "Exile,"

"Force and non-Force, what _is _it with you people and the not-calling-her-by-her-name?" Atton snapped at this.

"Mical!" Adel called out again, this time sounding frightened, as if she did not understand why Mical was not responding to her.

"I'm here," Mical said gently, and came forward to hug her, leaving Atton to support Adel's lower body since she still could not stand. "You can talk now," The blonde murmured, pulling back to look at her.

"Mical!" Adel said again.

Mical glanced at Atton. "There is still something wrong with her…"

"Point to the blonde," Said Atton snidely, while Atris stepped down the ramp behind him. "She pulled some weird trick earlier to distract the Sith but she hasn't really been right this entire time. Said a few words that might have saved us but…not much else. And she hasn't spoken since she fainted."

"Fainted?" Mical glanced at Atris, before apparently dismissing her and focusing back on Atton, "I think you should start from the beginning."

Adel was content to remain in Atton's arms, but she made a point of grabbing Mical's hand and holding on to it as they walked out of the docking bay. She was grinning so widely, it was clear she was ecstatic to see Mical, which made Atton unreasonably jealous because she had not been nearly as happy when she first saw Atton. Granted, back then, she was probably not in the state of mind to feel happy about anything, but trust Mical to always show up at precisely the time when she could appreciate his presence. Just like last time. And now, no doubt, he would monopolize all of her time again, leaving Atton in the sidelines to watch. It was a good thing Mical was a master now, and Adel was something of an invalid, because Atton was not sure if he could keep himself together if he saw her instructing Mical in the ways of the Force as she had in the past. Not after everything that had happened.

He would probably do what he did in the vision. Accost Mical, and plan to kill him.

"She taught us a better way to shield; even though the Sith fired at things, they didn't seem to know where we were."

"So every time you are near the Sith, you get a vision, and her touch dispels it?" Mical looked at Atris for confirmation.

"They are always dark," Atris agreed, "Usually visions to do with us turning dark. On occasion there is less darkness and more death, but they are almost always false, because they took place in the past, yet history did not actually pan out that way."

"I had my arm cut off in one," Atton related, "It felt very real. I could feel the burning pain of the lost limb, and apparently it was cut off by Darth Sion, who we all know is well and truly dead—and I apparently was killed by Darth Sion, after being mutilated. I _felt _the mutilation."

"I turned to the Dark Side," Said Atris.

"You did turn to the Dark Side."

"This was different. This time I faced…Kreia, and I killed her. I took the name of Darth Traya and waited for the Exile at Malachor V. The vision ended there. I can still feel the hatred. I had hated the Exile, and it was consuming."

"This all sounds like—" Mical broke off when Adel nibbled on his knuckle." Ah," He flushed, drawing his hand back, and Atton could guess why. "This all sounds like alternate realities."

Considering Adel had been putting a lot of odd things in her mouth, Atton decided not to be mad about her trying to eat Mical's hand. Besides, it was a bit funny, in a sad kind of way. He was even less angry when Adel raised her head and tried to nibble at his own neck. The heat went straight down and he did not have the luxury of pulling away from her the way Mical had.

"Ah, stop it, Adel, no, stop that!" He tried to yank his head away, to no success. "I think she's hungry," He managed to say, though his voice was a bit gruff from the fire in his loins. She was still trying to nibble him. _Not good. Not good._

"Get her to the Ithorians," Atris told the two of them, "I will retrieve some food and meet you there."

"Sounds like a plan!" Atton squeaked. "Adel, stop that. No. Stop that. Ugh."

Mical reached out and moved her head. He looked deeply into her eyes, the way both Atton and Atris had. While he scanned her mind, Atris left them.

"Well?" Atton asked, when Mical blinked out of the trance.

"You are right. She is hungry. She also recognizes both of us. She wonders why you have a beard," The statement made Atton want to rub his chin self-consciously, though he could not do that because his arms were too full of Adel, "And she wonders why I look older than she remembered. She has also sent the Sith to Korriban, from what I understand."

"What do you mean?"

"She used the Force to forge a hyperspace trail to Korriban."

The statement was too ludicrous for Mical to have uttered it so neutrally.

"How in the galaxy did she manage to do that?"

"I am not sure, but that was what I saw."

Atton checked himself. Past the thoughts of _Jaq is cute, so is Mical,_ that he would analyze later, he caught the flashes of memory, Adel, terrified beyond her limits, finally raising her hand to point, and the Force swirled to form a fake hyperspace trail. A flash of Korriban's desert landscape, and then the Sith winking out of normal space.

Pulling back into his mind, Atton looked at Mical gravely. "That is not a normal Jedi trick."

"That is not a mortal trick," Mical returned, equally grave.

Atton hesitated. "Do you think she really is a Sith Goddess? That they had opened up her potential, somehow?"

"I do not know. However, she has gotten extremely powerful, even if she is not quite capable of using it fully. That much is clear."

_What happened to you? _Atton wondered, as Adel tried to eat his robe. Mical helped free the cloth from her mouth as the two Jedi walked toward the Ithorians.

"Is there anything we should do? About her state of mind?"

"We should sit down before we try anything," Mical replied, and sighed when Adel bit down on Atton's collar again.

The Ithorians were already waiting for them, the once sparse rooms now covered with all sorts of vegetation, apparently samples to keep track of the restoration project. Adel reached out and tried to eat a suspicious-looking pod, which Mical quickly took away from her.

"We need a ship," Atton said to the Ithorian that looked like he was the leader, but then the alien pointed stiffly to the one next to him.

"You need to pull yourself together," Mical said to Atton.

"Shut up, Blondie. We need a ship."

"Chodo!" Adel reached out and tried to poke the Ithorian, who captured her hand gently in his own knobbly fingers.

'Exile', The Ithorian murmured in his warbling language, 'It is good to see you back with us, and much healed from your wound.'

"We need a ship," As much as Atton would like to extend the pleasantries, he was not willing to bet that the Sith would not come racing back to Telos if they dallied too long, "We need a ship and we probably won't be returning it, but she has saved your lives once."

'We will not abandon a friend in her time of need,' Said the alien, releasing Adel's hand. 'We will give you the ship you need. However,'

Atton sucked in a breath, because he did not like however's, no matter what they ended up being—

'The Exile's mind is very traumatized. If you wish, and if the Jedi consents, I can help improve her mental state.'

"Really?" Mical broke in before Atton even understood what Chodo Habat was saying. "You can do that? How?"

'We Ithorians share a special connection to what you Jedi call the Force,' said Chodo, 'Just as the Exile shares a strong and unique connection to the Force. If you wish, I can improve her mental state, but it will take time.'

"How much time?" Atton asked, not daring to hope.

'I will need to meditate alone with her for at least a day. She will not be recovered fully, but I think she should be capable of walking on her own, and understanding her surroundings. However, I will need to be alone with her, so I can concentrate without distractions.'

A day? So that Adel could walk, and perhaps run to safety if she had to?

"Deal," Atton said instantly.

"Atton," Mical said dubiously, "Perhaps we should sit with her first. I would like to take a closer look at her myself."

There were many things Atton would prefer doing rather than letting Mical stare at Adel, but he had to concede the other Jedi had a point.

"We would like to check her over first," He told the Ithorian, "We'll let you know if we're stumped."

_If Jedi Masters are stumped, we go to Ithorians._ It was a bit preposterous, but Atton was not willing to turn help away, in case Adel really needed it.

'Very well,' The Ithorian leader inclined his head a little, 'In the meantime, we will make arrangements for a ship. Please do not hesitate to come to me if you should need anything. We owe much to the Exile, and it would be an honor to be of help to her again."

"Chodo!" Adel chirped.

"Right," Atton said, "She stays silent on the ship, but as soon as she comes down it's 'Mical!' and 'Chodo!' I'll be _very_ glad to get her back to normal. Now Adel, you're not a two-year-old, stop eating my shirt. Don't eat my ear!" _Force, how am I supposed to carry you properly if you keep—_

They commed Atris before leaving the Ithorians to head to Mical's apartments. On the way, the Telosians gave them puzzled glances. It was not every day that they saw two Jedi Masters carrying a pretty young woman. Adel tried to grab at a Twi'lek's lekku, which earned the three of them an incredulous look from her target. Far too upset to apologize, Atton simply force-persuaded the alien to forget about the incident.

"You need to do something," He said to Mical when Adel forewent grabbing strangers in favor of suckling on Atton's earlobe. She started to chew on it, which hurt more than anything, and he pulled to get it out of her mouth.

"I think she is tired, uncomfortable, and hungry," Said Mical. "We should hurry and set her down on a proper bed."

"How does 'tired and uncomfortable' translate into grabbing at random people?"

"She is trying to stay awake," Said Mical.

He was, unfortunately, in a better position to see Adel's facial expression than Atton was.

Atris had already arrived at the apartments with bags of takeout. Adel had gotten increasingly fussy on the way here, and when Atton sat her down on the chair, she threw what could only be a Force fit, smashing the bags of food into the walls telekinetically and upturning the chairs that were across the room from her. She looked incredibly groggy and upset, eyes a bit swollen and face sagging with exhaustion.

"Maybe it's…naptime," Atris remarked.

_Naptime?_ Why not? She was putting everything in her mouth like a toddler. Why not a naptime like a toddler? Atton collected her and moved her to the bed. As soon as she was properly prone and covered, head resting on the pillow, she fell asleep, a sleep so deep that she was almost snoring. She looked almost like a baby.

Mical collected the food she threw across the room.

"You two should eat," He said to Atton and Atris, "I will have a look at Adel while she is sleeping."

He was more perturbed by her behavior than he let on, Atton could tell. Atton himself had quite a few days to accept Adel's current behavior—_Force_, he had quite a few days to accept she might be nothing more than a well-preserved corpse. Mical never had any of that, and his last memory of Adel had been when she was a glorious teacher, warrior, mother, sister, friend…

Atris took out the soup. "Should have known better than to get one of these," She muttered, when it dripped from the bowl. The entire outer surface was sticky with broth. She wiped it down with a grimace and looked gingerly at the rest of the contents, which were all covered with spilled soup. Some of it dripped onto the table.

At the smell of food, Atton realized he was actually starving. He ate with gusto, trusting Mical not to mess up with Adel. His hunger was sated quickly, and Atris was still eating when he moved over to Mical's side. Mical was kneeling next to the bed, facing Adel's sleeping face, in a calm trance.

"You probably should not disturb him," Atris called over a mouthful of food. She was hungry too.

Atton let out an impatient sigh, but left the two on their own. At least Mical was not touching her or anything.

When the blonde Jedi finally opened his eyes, two hours had passed.

"That was a long examination," Atton drawled, "Did you find anything?"

Mical did not answer immediately, because he had a headache.

"She has the opposite problem of what she use to have," He managed after a sip of water, wincing as he held his head, "Force overexposure, a kind of shock. She ought to have blocked it out as she did before, but something prevented her from doing so."

"Did this happen after she came out of the coffin?" Atton asked, worried.

"The coffin might have blocked it from her, but she was not always in a coffin," Mical pressed his forehead onto the table as he spoke, "She was put there fairly recently, probably by the Jedi that flew her to Dantooine in the first place. Before, she was a channeler of the Force. The entire universe flowed through her, and the Sith tapped into her as a reservoir."

It took a moment for Atton to understand what he said and relate this to what Atris had told him.

"Who was the Jedi that saved her?" Atton asked. "Was it Revan?"

"No. I don't know who it was. I did not see it, and even if I did, I doubt I would recognize him. Her memories are jumbled, and only now coming back together."

"So she's like this because of a Force shock?"

"As far as I can tell."

"Interesting," Atris mused, "Just like with Malachor V. Except instead of rejecting the Force, she rejected conscious thought."

"Well this is all very good! But is there a way to save her?"

"If there is a way to block her again, she might be quiet enough to heal."

Atton cursed. He had left the coffin on Dxun.

"Brianna wanted me to bring everything from inside the coffin," He said, taking out the bag and shaking out the flower petals and Adel's white gown and headdress. Mical picked up one of the petals and sniffed at it. "Don't tell me that's Force sensitive or something."

"I don't know," Said Mical. He held the flower under Adel's nose. She slumbered on, and it seemed to have no effect.

"Why the petals?" Atris wondered. "If she was put in the coffin by a Jedi and they had to get away from the Sith, why all the ceremony?"

"We are with the Ithorians, who are good at all things related to plants," Mical glanced at Atton, "Perhaps the Force meant for us to meet them again for a reason other than procuring a ship."

There was a long pause. They all glanced down at the sleeping Exile.

"Atton," Mical said sourly, "You can stay here, since you obviously want to. Atris and I will go talk to the Ithorians."

Atton could not bring himself to feel sorry for the man. "Alright. I'll feed her if she wakes up."

Mical grimaced at him, before heading to the door. Atris wiped her mouth with a napkin before joining him.

Atton sat down as they left. It felt like they were getting somewhere, and then not. He studied Adel's sleeping face.

She was really cute when she slept, so obviously exhausted that Atton felt sleepy just watching her. He leaned back and shut his eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

Return to Life

Chapter 17

Mical rarely suffered from headaches, but when he got them, they were epic. In his life he really only had two headaches that he could remember, both of which had him completely sick and unable to function. The first was when Adel went off to face the Mandalorians and he realized she had forsaken him. It was the first time he experience a physical manifestation of heartbreak, and it was not refined in the least. The headache lasted for nearly a week, the nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea only slightly less, and the healers were baffled because they did not know what could cause an otherwise healthy youngster to fall so ill. Mical, who knew in his heart what it was, had been too embarrassed and crestfallen to confide in anyone, and eventually learned to collect the grief inside him so that he could perform as a living person.

The second time he had a headache was when Adel left him to head into the Unknown Regions. This time, he had learned how to channel his grief into the Force, and it was necessary that he did because there was so much work to be done. Adel left them with the responsibility of rebuilding the Order, but no one else was able to pull themselves together. Atton was a mess, Bao-Dur was never a leader, Mira lost a sister and could only confide in Brianna, who likewise was also not fit for leadership, and Visas was bereft without a mentor and master. Mical was the only one out of their group to remember how the old Jedi use to work, and the only one, it turned out, that Adel ever discussed its management with. Much of his attention had been distracted away from the headache as he recollected their conversations, so casual at the time, so inconspicuous, as if Adel had simply been nostalgic. He never realized she had been preparing him all the while.

And why not? Adel knew everyone well. She was always like that, wise beyond her years, a young sage. In addition to her fighting prowess and her pure goodness, she had the talent only the wisest of Jedi Masters had: to look at a person and know their very soul. No doubt this had fueled her ability to form connections with everyone, because she knew precisely who she was working with, and that was vital for any leader.

He worked despite the illness and the pain, so that he hardly realized when it passed. The galaxy struggled to collect itself, to recuperate from the Sith attacks and readapt to the budding new Order, and he was needed everywhere—Coruscant, Dantooine, Alderaan, Corellia, to recruit and persuade and negotiate with Jedi and non-Jedi. Sometimes he thought it was not so much an intense headache of a week like it was the first time, but a mild headache that lasted years and years and years.

Now he was having a third, or the beginnings of one, a dizziness in his brain that was slowly building as the Ithorians tested the sample.

"How long will it take to reverse-clone the plant?" He asked.

'From the genetic sequence it appears this plant requires 3 weeks to sprout. We can attempt to accelerate the process, but that might alter its effects.

Three weeks should not seem as long as it did.

"Please do what you can," He said, "Regardless of whether we have to flee Telos before it finishes, we will still need the results eventually."

'Yes, Master Jedi.'

He released the pain in his head into the Force, but it was difficult, anxious as he was. Adel had behaved nothing like the regal woman that he remembered, and yet she was undoubtedly there, and undoubtedly glad to see him. He almost wished he had never seen her again, because there was such a sense of profound loss, to see a mentor brought to the mentality of a child, dependent, vulnerable, helpless. He had always thought of her as the epitome of strength and dignity. The very embodiment of a Jedi Master.

Reluctant to return to the temporary apartments to face her again, especially with Atton's possessiveness tossed into the mix, Mical stayed with the Ithorians for a moment longer and sent a comm to Bastila. When she answered, she looked like she had just showered.

_"Mical—"_ She did a double-take, _"Well. Do I want to hear this?"_

"It's just been a…difficult day." _A difficult year. Or ten._

_"What happened? Where are you right now?"_

"I'm on Telos IV. I found…Atton. And her. They're with Atris, actually."

_"_Atris_? What—"_

"She's safe. They're all safe, for now." Mical ran his fingers through his hair to try to relieve the blooming headache. It was getting harder to keep calm. "Any news from Dantooine?"

_"Dantooine has taken some heavy damage but it appears the Sith departed for 'no explicable reason'. Onderon was under siege, briefly, but again, the Sith left. No reports yet as to where the Sith are now."_

Probably Adel's work, since she sent them to Korriban. There would not be any news of them over there. Mical did not voice this out loud, however. Some things should not be said over the comm, and he was not even sure he wanted Bastila to know. The only reason she knew anything about Adel was because she was also on the Council and would notice his absence, otherwise Mical would not have kept even that from her.

_"Well, did you find out about Revan?"_

"Not much."

_"Well?"_

"He was alive when she last saw him, I think, but that hardly means much," Mical said wearily, "She was in the hands of the Sith for a while, no telling how long."

_"Oh." _Bastila's face smoothed to an indifferent look. _"I guess that means _she _is alright, then."_

Mical took a moment to comprehend the statement.

"No. She is not alright. I am not even sure she is really all here with us. I had to look into her mind, and see her thoughts, which were pretty scattered, to be honest. It could be she knows of his whereabouts but I just have not reached that particular thought yet."

_"What is wrong with her, exactly?"_

Mical actually had no idea how to articulate this, and had no desire to try.

"We will probably be staying on Telos for a time, actually. She has been on the run since waking up and had thrown a fit earlier because she was miserable and exhausted." Let Bastila interpret that however she liked. "I recruited the Ithorians into helping me with a quick study that would hopefully solve a lot of the problems we have been having. I will contact you if I need anything."

Bastila knew when to take a hint. She was not quite sympathetic, because from her perspective, at least Mical got Adel back, whereas she still had yet to hear any word of Revan. She nodded briskly at this.

_"Very well."_

His head felt like it was imploding by the time he cut the connection, and he set it down on the table with a groan, hardly able to siphon off any of the pain into the Force. The Ithorians were giving him puzzled looks, though, so he did not remain there long. Atton and Atris no doubt wanted to be updated by now, so he bid the researchers farewell before stepping out of the compound.

Telos had improved considerably since Adel's last visit. According to her, the planet was on the verge of collapse, and she was placed in the odd position of almost single-handedly deciding between the Ithorians, who saw hope for the planet, and the Czerka corporation, who saw profit through its demise. There had been no question of her choice, of course, and Telos had slowly but surely recovered its former health and beauty, but for some reason, over the years she spent on Dantooine after defeating the the Sith Triumverate, she never saw fit to contact anyone in Telos again, nor was she interested at all in news of the restoration effort.

She was not interested in any of the planets she visited, really. It was strange, because one would think she would find some joy in knowing that her good deeds had their lasting impacts. Maybe at that time she truly no longer cared.

_What would the Force still want from her?_ If she was alive, that surely meant she still had something to do. Or something she was supposed to inspire?

"Hey, you alright?"

Mical looked up. He found himself leaning against the wall to relieving his pounding headache. The speaker was a Rodian, speaking in Basic. His tones were a bit short, which was parallel to the temperament of his species, but there was a genuine underlying concern underneath it.

"I am fine," Mical said, mustering up a small smile, "Been better, but fine."

"You look like you had one too many from the cantina. Either that, or you could use a few."

Atton would laugh his head off at that. Mical drinking hard beverages.

"I'll have to think about if it's the latter," He smiled again, pushing himself off the wall, "At the moment, I have somewhere to be. I appreciate your concern."

"Hm! No problem. Last time the Jedi were here, saved us from a real mess. Force be with you, Master."

Mical managed to summon a cheerful facade as the two parted ways. He was starting to get nauseous.

"I am going to lie down for a while," He told Atris and Atton when he entered.

"Sith!" Atton exclaimed, "What happened? Did they poison you or something? You look horrid!"

"Do you want some water?" Atris asked.

"I will just lie down." Adel was still asleep, her breathing still rough, almost snoring. The Force around her rippled with her exhaustion. She was occupying one of three beds. Mical took the one closest to the door.

"What happened with the Ithorians?"

He felt much better once he was prone. "They need to reverse clone the plant from the petal to determine what it does. It is definitely Force-sensitive, but unlike anything that exists in the known regions."

"Figures," Atton muttered.

"Until we have a living specimen we wouldn't know just _how _Force-sensitive it is, or what it does to Force-sensitive people. Has Adel been asleep this whole time?"

"Yes," Said Atris, "The stress of travel no doubt got to her now."

"Perhaps we should settle on Telos for a time," Said Mical, "Keep her in one place for a while so she could have a little bit of stability."

"How long are you proposing?"

"The plant would take a few weeks to grow. Perhaps if the Force permits, we can remain until we learn what we could from the Ithorians."

"Too long," Atton said instantly, "Can't you hurry the process at all?"

"Hurrying the process might change the plant's attributes."

"Well we can't stay in one place for three weeks! Not out here! If she wants to rest, we have to get her to the core planets where it's safer."

"Adel led the Sith on a dead trail."

"Yes, but it's only a matter of time before they realize that and come back to the Peragus debris field to track hyperspace trails. No go. We're leaving as soon as they have a ship for us, and if they have any results they can forward the transmission. Force-sensitive flowers aren't useful when she's _dead._"

Something in Mical snapped. It was just like Atton to summarize with the _ugliest _choice of words. "You should watch what you say," He warned, simmering anger making his head hurt even more, "Smart comments like that prove little of your wit and intelligence and only serve to inspire trouble."

"What?" Atton rose to match his ire, "Can't take the truth?"

"I merely detest your talent for making situations _worse _than what they are, all so that you can feel better about yourself. Allow me to remind you that for all your cunning and pride, you did not save the Exile last time, and you would not this time if you only listen to yourself."

_"What is with _all of you refusing to call her by her _name?_" Atton exploded. Mical sensed Adel's consciousness snap awake, though the violence of it left her immobile and confused. Atton had also sensed it, and had fallen silent instantly.

"There," Atris said softly, "Perhaps we should ask for another apartment for the two of you to settle your differences so that you do not disturb her."

"Shut up," Atton hissed, leveling a mighty glare at her. She missed it, however, moving over to Adel's side. There was something extraordinarily motherly about the way Atris caressed her arm. Mical felt a pang of shame. Atris had fallen to the Dark Side once, and yet she seemed to be far more apt at taking care of Adel than either of the men.

"Are you hungry?" She whispered, as Adel rolled over, blinking widely. Despite the abrupt waking, she looked happier, grinning up at the other woman.

Mical sat up slowly. His headache was still there, but he felt slightly rejuvenated, despite the still simmering irritation at how inconsiderate Atton always was. It was foolish of him, he knew. He never expected Atton to be any better, so there was no excuse for him to lose his temper like that. Not to mention, it was unbecoming of a Jedi Master.

_Why are you upset?_ Adel's voice rang in his mind. Unlike other teachers, she had never reacted to a students' anger by spewing nonsense about how they simply should not feel it. She always looked to the root of the problem, examining the reasons for the anger and then explaining why he should not react that way. _There are many things that may anger us,_ she had said, _But when we stop to think, we realize, there was no reason for us to be angry in the first place. Why lose our temper when someone is discourteous toward us? If he or she is a stranger, that discourtesy is not a personal affront, but a general one, and we should not take it to heart. If he or she is a friend, that discourtesy is perhaps more deserved in the first place, and we should seek to solve _that _problem rather than lose our tempers. Anger is a dangerous emotion, one that should be controlled, but it should be controlled because there are many instances where we resort to it when it is at best unneeded and unwarranted, and at worst undeserved._

He went to Adel, wishing she were better, that she had been the same person he had looked up to for all of his life. He found himself feeling like a student again, wide-eyed and bewildered and not a little foolish. He wanted to talk to her, about his emotions and how he had been feeling so lost lately, ever since learning of her return, the many things happening in the galaxy. Despite knowing better, as he moved to within her range of view, he expected her to ask him what was wrong, just as she had done in the past.

Adel did not speak, but looked at him with what could only be described as a merry expression, and raised her arms up in a silent request for a hug. Childish and utterly unlike her, and yet Mical could not refuse, even as his heart ached deeply. She was warm and entrancingly soft in places, and holding her woke distant memories of life in the creche, when everything had still been light and fluffy and innocent.

Atton shifted uncomfortably behind him, and Mical could sense his sour mood darkening. Jealous to the last, the selfish man.

His own head touched Adel's temple and in a flash the Force sparked between them. A vision blanketed over his eyes, and he was next to a…waterfall? More flashes, people speaking, and then Adel jerked her head back, blinking rapidly as if to recover her bearings. Mical felt like his brain had been viciously raked.

"Blondie!" Atton gripped his shoulder, but it was to steady him. "Schuttas! What happened?"

The headache was gone, counter-intuitively. Mical quickly recalled what he saw and heard. Darth Sion and Darth Traya? He never imagined he would face those two again, and had always imagined that perhaps they were burning in the darkest places of the Force. This did not really tell him how to help Adel, but it did provide some insight into what she has become.

"Hey, Blondie! Do I have to call medics in here?"

Mical rubbed his head, even though there was no headache to relieve. "I am fine. Atton, let go of me."

The other did. Adel leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Mical. He stiffened, but nothing happened.

"Hello Adel," Said Mical, since calling her an Exile now would no longer be appropriate, based on what he had learned. To him, Exile was grace, honor, sacrifice, beauty, light, virtue, and hope, but that had more to do with who she was than the fact that she was in exile. She could be Adel again, for she had returned home.

He wondered what the two Sith meant when they said she had no more obligations.

"Mical," Adel replied, sounding a bit subdued and tired. She looked happy though, as happy as when she first found him on Dantooine after the Mandalorian Wars. Her forehead was still pressed to his, and he wondered if this felt as intimate to her as it did to him. He looked into her eyes searchingly and she responded with a sudden memory. He saw himself, younger, shorter, cheeks still plump with the fat of youth, skin finer and more tender, flushed from fever and breathing shallowly. He touched his younger counterpart's forehead with his own and it was seering hot. Hot.

_Hot_. He was on the floor, and something was coursing through his veins. Dark shadowy figures loomed above him and he would have writhed if his limbs were not immobile. He was boiling from the inside and the pain was excruciating, and then the Force opened in his mind and there was so much, too much, _too much—_

Adel pulled back, blinking tears and whimpering. Mical collapsed on the floor.

"Mical!" Atris reached for him.

"Adel!" Atton grabbed her shoulders to hold her up as she slumped a little. "Sith, Mical! What did you do?"

Mical released a shuddering breath. He had never heard of mental exchanges like this between Jedi. To be sure, it was possible to join minds, through intense meditation and training, but it was never this easy, and never so complete. Worried that she might still be trapped in that awful memory, he lunged forward to press his forehead against hers again.

_I love you._ With a practiced mind, he projected his own memories, of better times in their childhood, when Adel had been plump yet slender, a child herself, far more cheerful than most Jedi and motherly to those younger than her. He had warmed up to her instantly, drawn by both her graceful personality and her graceful Force-signature. At the time, he thought she was the most beautiful being in the world, even though in her teens Adel had been more cute than pretty. Sometimes in the breaks between lessons, when Mical was having trouble containing his frustration at the amount of work and limited success he perceived himself achieving, Adel would recommend they sneak out. Whatever scandalized feelings he had was quickly quenched by the fact that he would get to spend time with her, and he could not remember being more free, more content with himself, as he did when she took him to the wilds and told him that _this _was the place to bond with the Force—not some artificially made garden, or temple walls designed by some architect, but an environment designed by the Force itself, wild, natural, and profound.

More than a decade later, both he and Adel had grown. When he saw her after the war, he almost did not recognize her. Gone were the straight, taut plumpness of youth. She was a woman, equipped with a woman's curves, and though she remained slender it was still obvious that her voice had deepened slightly, her face more refined, her breasts were more ample and her hips wider. After slaying the Sith Triumverate, while she sat sighing in the gardens of the Jedi Enclave, Mical had been happy that she was with them still, and life had acquired a kind of domesticity he never envisioned the Jedi could have, even with such a dysfunctional family as theirs.

Visions of life on the Council slipped in despite Mical's attempts—his own sadness, the long, chronic headache borne of heartbreak. He quickly broke contact before he could upset her again. Adel looked thoughtful.

"M—" She squeezed her eyes shut in effort. "M-Master?"

Mical nodded, "I am a Council Master now."

"Master," She grinned, and it was a particularly knowing grin, as if one of her predictions had come to pass, and she was very pleased. She touched her forehead to him briefly, only for a second, but in it was a flash of image, of him when he was a youngling, except sitting on the Council. She was toying with him!

"Tease," He touched his forehead back to hers to relate the feeling behind the statement, before sitting back, feeling a relief only matched by the relief he had felt when he encountered her on Dantooine after the Mandalorian Wars. He had just realized some good news from all these confusing exchanges and was almost giddy with it."I think I figured out how to talk to her. It's tricky, but I think it's easier for her to focus that way. She has a hard time focusing her thoughts on her own. Joining minds would give her the extra mental boost for now."

"What are you talking about?" Atton asked.

Mical was smiling as well as Adel—he could not help it. "She's alright," He said. "She's in there."

"Of course she is," Atton protested, looking like he thought Mical was daft.

"No," Mical held back the urge to laugh out loud as he recalled the memory she sent him of the time when she tended to him while he was sick. He did not remember that particular event, did not remember her touching her forehead to his, but the memory was real, as was the tender affection behind it, and it soothed an old wound he hardly knew existed. "Our Adel is fine. We have a lot of work to do, but she is fine."


	18. Chapter 18

Return to Life

Chapter 18

When Atton tried to talk to Adel through the forehead link, he could only discern one thought.

"Well," He said in a disheartened manner as Atris fed her, "It was _one _thought, which is probably better than many many many, right?"

"I told you, mind-melding, using our mental discipline as leverage, it helps her concentrate. It also seems to soothe her. Having so many scattered thoughts cannot be pleasant."

"Can you say 'food'?" Atris was asking Adel.

"Foo'."

"I think she's doing that on purpose," Atris stated when Adel dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Mical had gotten hungry as well, and so was eating from his own bowl.

"This is actually more like her," He said to Atton, recalling the old days, "She had a great sense of humor. It was her humor that drew others to her back then. Otherwise, the Jedi Enclave would have been a tremendously dull place. She brought life to it. Some would say she brought the Force to it. She always took time to play with the younglings, even though she had a busy schedule. She was very loving, and everything the Jedi Code had warned against—but no one wanted her to change, not even the Jedi Masters, really. It was why everyone was so eager to believe she had turned when she left. She was not conventional."

Atton cocked an eyebrow. "I somehow can't imagine her going around calling people 'fool' and 'idiot'. That's more like that old hag."

"She never called others fools," Said Mical, "She only called herself a fool. With others…whenever other people are with her, we not only get the feeling that we want to be better than we are, we actually feel better than we are. You know this, Atton."

"Foo'!" Adel chirped.

"She's amused by the sound of the word," Atris observed. The woman looked like she wanted to touch her forehead to Adel's, but that was a bit awkward when there was food between them. "Adel, behave."

After eating, Adel grew tired again, and curled up to sleep. She wanted Atton and Mical on both sides of her, something the two Jedi acquiesced to reluctantly. Once again, she practically began snoring, cuddling close to Mical while squeezing Atton's arm in hers.

Neither Atton nor Mical were in the mood for sleeping, so they cast a Force field over her so she would not be roused by noise. It had been a long time since Mical had lain this close to her; the last time was before the war, and even then they reclined side-by-side, not touching. He could not remember ever lying with a warm body pressed tightly against his. It was a new experience.

"Was she ever this clingy?" Atton asked.

"Not from what I remember." Mical regarded her. She was so relaxed, it was touching to see her so trusting of them. "Among Jedi…our closeness is through the Force, not through physical interaction. She is just starved, I think." Images of her experiences with the Sith flashed in his mind. "She is just very happy we are here, and this is the only way she can express it now."

"You people have no sense of propriety, do you?" The former assassin observed dryly, "She has no idea how inappropriate this is, sleeping on a bed with two guys."

"If it bothers you that much," Atris drawled from the other bed, "_I _can sleep on her bed and you two babies can sleep somewhere else."

"Yeah, well, she asked for us, not you, so bugger off."

"It's not inappropriate," Said Mical, "Unless this actually bothers you."

"Oh come on. Do you even have a pair? You can't tell me that you don't feel something here. And don't give me that 'it's not carnal' nonsense. That is Sithspit."

Mical reached up to stroke her hair soothingly. "It's not so much me. It's her. She doesn't 'feel something here', and so there is nothing inappropriate about sleeping in the embrace of two people dear to her heart. We already know she's lost a lot of her inhibitions. She's trusting us to restrain ourselves because she cannot hold back her own needs. Propriety is not important to her right now."

Atton contemplated her for a moment. "She really is still like a child now, however intact she is in there, isn't she? What was she like, as a real child? She wasn't much older than you."

Adel suddenly cooed softly. Mical leaned close to hug her, and she cooed again.

"She was very mature for her age. She had a quiet joy about her, not filled with excitement, not really filled with passion, but when you were with her, the world is more beautiful, life is happy, and any problem you might be having did not seem as terrible as it did before you were with her. She liked the younglings and the younglings loved her. We all looked up to her as an example of what we wanted to be."

"Let me guess: she liked you the best."

"Not really. I just loved her the best out of all of us. Everyone else just regarded her as a role model. I idolized her. I wanted to be her padawan. It was stupid because she was still a padawan herself, and hardly older than I was. It was not until later, when I started training students of my own, that I realized just how much I was asking of her. A mentor was like a parent, and she was still a child herself, one who excelled in training but did not quite have the experience necessary to know how to take care of a student. She tried to dissuade me by promising future partnerships, but I was too blind and she did not have the heart to refuse me outright."

"Hmph. Well she still ended up training you."

"And you," Mical said quietly, and though bitterness clogged his throat, he admitted, "She always loved you the best."

"Ha." Atton scrunched up his nose, and Atton cooed again at the abrupt jerk of his chest. He smoothed a hand over her temple and she calmed down. "She spent all her free time with you. All of the sudden she had no more time for anyone else."

"She felt she owed me. It was different with you though. She told me there was a goodness in you, one that surpassed any of the rest of us, even Visas. You once thrived in the Dark Side, delighted in it, prospered in it, and yet you came back. Even Visas was only enslaved by it and never had a chance to actually grow. She was always a bit admiring of you, because somehow you could find enough joy to crack jokes and see the humor in things despite having been steeped in the Dark Side so thoroughly. She wished she could emulate you; her optimism died on Malachor V."

A heavy silence fell at this, before Atton cleared his throat, apparently deciding to return the favor of sharing what Adel told him of Mical.

"She always regretted not training you. She felt like she failed you by leaving you to go to war."

Mical pressed his lips to Adel's hair. "I know. That sounds like Adel. She use to be full of hope. She cracked more bad jokes than you and Mira put together. Then the war…and then she just seemed to have so many regrets."

"Points to us for totally failing at clearing those matters up."

"I think it's harder for her than it was for me. I just lost opportunities; she threw them away. When she left for the war, the entire Order was scandalized. Mentors she looked up to and trained with denounced her, and she personally saw her comrades fall to the Dark Side after making the same decisions she made. Then after Malachor V, just when she needed support the most, she was turned away from the Order and exiled to nurse her wounds alone. All of us just wanted to put all that behind us after dealing with the Sith Triumverate, but she was still trapped in the war, in the past, and none of us thought she was hurting enough to need help rooting herself in the present when things are better."

He was aware that Atris was listening to every word he said, and was remaining silent, staring up at the ceiling of the apartment from her bed. She had been one of the masters to turn Adel out when she needed help the most, so the words no doubt struck a chord in her.

"So now this," Atton said at last, "And she still can't ask for help."

"She's a lot happier now, actually," Mical smiled, "I think the fact that she is not in the right state of mind to remember 'responsibility' and 'duty' helps a lot."

"She's not going back to the Jedi." This was said flatly, and faintly challenging, but there was no need. Mical had no intention of forcing Adel back into the Order. She belonged to the old Order and would not be comfortable in the new, nor was he keen on letting her take her lightsaber to risk her life and happiness for the sake of the galaxy again. Enough was enough.

"Where should she go then?" He asked.

"Once this is over," And there was no "if", as if entertaining the idea of failure was completely ridiculous, "I am leaving the Order to take care of her."

Mical was silent for a long time at this. _Atton will take care of her._ He dearly wanted it to be him instead, but something in him tugged at the thought of leaving the Order. Adel had looked so pleased when she learned he was a Jedi Master, and he recalled the brief mental image she sent him as a joke. The Force sung unhappily whenever he entertained the idea of going with Adel.

_It is not your destiny._

Out of all of the Lost Jedi the Exile had trained, Mical was the only one who made it to the Council, and it was unlikely that any of the others would follow him. If he left, there would be no connection to the Jedi Council for her, and perhaps he could serve her better if he stayed in the Order. It was obvious from the start that he was never meant to walk with her in life for long, only cross paths and treasure the times when their fates touched.

Atton was staring at him. Mical avoided his gaze.

"You will let me visit?" He asked, half wondering if his long-term rival of many years would ever let him near the woman he loved. The man could be so territorial, and Mical did not relish the idea of fighting over Adel with him.

But Atton had changed over the years, and the two had come to a quiet understanding of each other. They had both loved the same woman, and she deserved loving, and neither could blame the other for worshiping her as much as himself.

"She is not my slave," The brunette replied, "She cares about you. She wouldn't have sat with you and meditated all the time on the Ebon Hawk if she only felt guilty. And did you see how happy she was to see you? If you don't visit she might hunt you down. After all these years being alone with the Sith, she needs all the family she can get, and for some Force-forsaken reason she thinks you're family."

"For some Force-forsaken reason, she thinks _you _are too."

"Ha!" Atton kissed her head. "That's our Adel. Force-forsaken."

At some point Mical fell asleep, and woke when Adel began shuffling. In her current mindset, she could not seem to tolerate certain grievances, one of which was being stuck between two men. Atton snored softly on her other side. Despite his nap earlier, he was still exhausted, and did not wake when Adel began shoving at his arm.

Mical shifted aside to give her room, and she managed to push herself to a sitting position without help. She grinned happily, eyes bright with delight. Atton curled a little bit toward her warmth.

_Good dreams?_ Mical asked as he pressed his forehead to hers.

Adel answered with a series of memories put together to form a question. _Visas? Brianna? Mira? Bao-Dur?_

_Away,_ Mical replied, rubbing her arms gently. He would very much like to know himself. There was no word from their other friends, and though he did not sense any of their deaths, he still wanted to know how they were doing.

Atris was meditating, but when Mical stood up, she opened her eyes to look at them.

"She looks better."

Adel collided her temple with Mical's, an a vision transferred, slightly blurry like one from Force.

_"They are spread out," _The Miralukan said to the ex-bounty hunter, _"But most of them seem to be rendezvousing at Korriban."_

_"I swear, if Atton was stupid enough to take Adel to Korriban, I am going to kick his—"_

_"She is not on Korriban."_

_"Good. Where is she?"_

_"I cannot say for sure. It is…murky. The Force is obscuring her."_

_"That means the Sith don't know either, right?"_

_"…Entirely unproductive," _Brianna paced into the vision, _"If they're on Nar Shaddaa, they're not answering the transmission. The sooner Adel gets better, the sooner she can take care of herself. Those flowers…"_

The vision stopped and Adel blinked, making a dizzied noise.

"Adel is still very much in touch with the Force," Mical observed.

"Really?" Atris drawled, "I didn't notice."

"We need to get to Nar Shaddaa," He told her, "Brianna sent us a transmission to be picked up there. There is no telling how we would find it if we have to search for an entire moon, but the Force has not failed in getting us to find what we are meant to find."

"Don't we need to wait for the results of those flowers?"

_Those flowers._

"It is probably best if we split up. Nar Shaddaa isn't a friendly society, and Adel is…"

Adel was leaning over Atton and blowing at his face. When he woke up, looking confused and annoyed, she giggled. It would have been endearing if Adel had been five years old, but as an adult, it just looked upsetting. To his credit, Atton was patient.

"Hey there," He reached out to stroke her cheek, "Sleep well?"

Adel craned forward to brush her nose against the stubble on his chin.

"Right." Mical tilted his head back at Atris. "One person should stay with her, and two others should go to the Smuggler's Moon, since that's the sort of place that would warrant partners."

"What's this about the Smuggler's Moon?" Atton broke in.

When Mical explained, he was not happy.

"I can just see it," He said in exasperation, "Just because I was there and use to call that place a home of sorts, I'm going to be sent there, aren't I?"

"You and Mical both," Atris said shortly. "I will stay with her."

"Not a chance," Atton snapped back, "If you think we're going to leave her alone with you then you can shove it up—"

"She has a point," Mical told Atton, "You know best how to navigate your way around the moon."

"And you're just going to leave her with the Ice Witch."

Mical rubbed his face. "You were dismayed when we were sharing the same bed. You honestly want to say that you want me to mother her?"

"I wasn't upset about sharing the same bed with _Adel._ I was upset about sharing the same bed with _you_."

"I know!" Atris broke in sarcastically, "Since Adel is _not _a vegetable, how about we let _her _decide, hm?"

It was the most sensible thing anyone had said. Adel did not want any of them to go, but then she needed to use the refresher and Atris was the only one who could help her without awkwardness. It was settled that Mical and Atton would go to Nar Shaddaa, and the former Exile gave them both a kiss goodbye before cuddling in Atris's embrace.

"Very sweet and nice," Atton said unhappily. "You let us know if there's anything, Atris."

"I _have _taken care of girls and women before," Atris sneered, "Get out of here."

"We still need a ship," Atton muttered as they walked out. "Let's hope Chodo Habat delivers."


	19. Chapter 19

Return to Life

Chapter 19

Once in hyperspace, Atton stood to stretch his legs while Mical remained in the copilot seat to meditate. The visions and sensations started out as normal as his usual meditations, but then they became warped, and all of the sudden, he was facing Revan.

Revan was a real star among the Jedi. He had the most raw strength out of all of them, and was the best of his classes, the best of his years, and it was always whispered among the masters that he would either become their champion or fall the most easily. Mical had personally never met him, but he had seen holograms of the man, tall, strongly-built, a little like Atton in his irreverence for authority. What was the most frightening about the man was his cold intellect—he was easily the smartest Jedi that ever lived, and was able to best tacticians many times his age despite his own youth during the wars. Perhaps because they were afraid of feeding his pride, the Order never allowed him to accelerate in his studies, which might have instilled resentment leading up to his eventual corruption considering his near insatiable thirst for knowledge. Despite this, everyone did admire Revan, acknowledging that he was an incredibly skilled, incredibly talented member of their Order, to the point where any mission Revan was sent on was assumed to promise success.

The Revan in this meditation had gotten a bit older than the holograms. Due to his connection to the Force, his youth lingered and his hair remained free of grays, but his jaw was firmer and there was something aged about him that had little to do with wrinkles or lines. He was dressed in black, which instantly had Mical on alert because while clothing mattered little in the real world, in the world of visions, color could be very significant and symbolic.

_"You are that Disciple," _Revan murmured, his voice low and authoritative, befitting of a leader. _"Fancy meeting you here."_

_"Where are you?" _Mical asked, rather than confirming or denying the title_. _He was a Jedi Council Master himself, but it took a bit of will to remind himself of that and not be cowed by this almost legendary figure, whose presence was every bit as charismatic and powerful as the tales have said.

_"I am in darkness,"_ Said Revan, _"She was always better for this. She could walk in shadow and guide by her own light. It is not possible to taint her, but it is possible to use her. I miscalculated."_

Mical glanced at his surroundings. He was standing in halls of some sort, but the architecture was reminiscent of the academy on Korriban.

_"You are tempted, again,_" Mical realized, looking at where Revan was standing. He tried not to show his disgust, but it was a futile effort. _"You look at a culture not your own and you are tempted _again._ I do not care how great of a strategist you are; you came from this galaxy and this galaxy will produce others better than you."_ How anyone could remember Revan and not Adel, Mical would never understand.

_"The call of the Dark Side is stronger than you know," _Said the former Sith Lord, assuming he was not becoming a Sith already. His signature felt distant, too muffled for Mical to be certain of his alignment, but it was not shining like Adel's. _"You dispel it with ease, because the Exile loves you, and you love her. Such a bond becomes a shield, Disciple."_

Mical blinked at this, taking the time to muse over the words. He was not so sorry for himself that he would deny that Adel did love him, in her own way, perhaps as free of carnal desires as Mical had once claim his own affections were, but he had never considered that perhaps their mutual fondness for each other had such profound consequences. She did have an affinity for establishing bonds, and her bond with Mical had been stronger than her bonds with other Jedi younglings, and perhaps other Jedi in general.

It was true…as soon as she accepted her lot of misfit friends, all of them were able to reject the Dark Side. None of them gave too much thought about it, because it seemed natural; the Dark Side was something that must be rejected, and Adel had been training them, teaching them, so naturally under her tutelage they became stronger…but perhaps she had literally been lending her strength to them as well. As much as all of them had boosted her, Mical had always claimed that she boosted them in return.

_"Why are you here?"_ Mical asked at last. _"The Sith follow Adel, and we are trying to keep her from them. There is no way we can spare forces to help you. You will have to help yourself."_

_"I was here to seek the light, and I find you, one of her students." _Revan folded his hands, and the halls shimmered a little, becoming blurry. _"I suppose she is not in the state to come here, still."_

No, Adel was not really in the state to meditate at all. Mical told him so.

_"She is out?" _Revan frowned, and the Force around them darkened with displeasure, _"Fools. The coffin protects her, and you destroy her shield."_

_"It was getting in the way," _Mical replied, _"Or else would you prefer the Sith reclaim her again?"_

It was Revan's turn to contemplate this.

_"Did you at least keep the flowers and the dress?"_

Mical frowned. _"Yes. Can you tell me what they are for?"_

_"So many years with the Sith,"_ The other said softly, _"It changes a normal man. For a Goddess of Light in mortal form…it sickens her. The dress is her armor, and from the flowers you must grow the medicine she needs to combat what they did to her."_

Mical felt a surge of fear. _"She has been out for at least two weeks. She hasn't shown any—her mind was a bit scattered but she's been getting better. What did they do to her? What will happen to her? What if she remains untreated? How long can she last?"_

_"I do not know,"_ Revan replied quietly, _"But it is more than her mind that was affected. It seems we unite in this realm so that I may pass the warning to you."_

"Hey," Atton shook Mical, "Your signature was going haywire."

Mical jumped to his feet. "Can we stop?"

"What?" Atton scowled. "Stop in the middle of hyperspace? There's no telling where we'd end up!"

"Then how long to Nar Shaddaa?"

"It's still about forty hours, sweet-cheeks. What's the deal?"

"Revan," Mical jumped to his feet and paced, "Revan said, those flowers, they need—she needs them as medicine. I don't know how long she has. He said they did more to her body than we thought. She needs them. And the dress is armor—I don't know how that works but at this point I'm not going to take any chances. Is there any way for this ship to go faster?"

"Go faster in hyperspace? Are you an idiot?" But Atton was also distressed.

"We can't send messages in hyperspace," Mical ran his fingers through his hair.

"What in the galaxy are you talking about anyway?"

Mical explained to him. "I think Revan is turning again and holding on by the skin of his teeth."

"Even if we get a message to Telos," Atton ignored this comment to point out, "The Ithorians still need at least a week and a half to grow the plant from the clone. I did not sense anything wrong with Adel when I scanned her physiology. She seemed perfectly healthy, if under-exercised. As for the dress, there was nothing special about that dress. It was made of some kind of silk. There were no Force energies imbedded in the fabric—just nothing. And—son of a schutta! The crystal!"

"What?"

"The lightsaber crystal! Remember T3? The recording said that everything was in the crystal! How did I forget about that?"

Mical assumed that T3's recording was played on Dantooine, when he was not present. He opened his mouth to speak, but then there was a sudden churning of the Force.

Atton cursed. "Sith."

"Korriban is not that far from Telos IV."

Atton cursed again.

"The good news is if we sensed that then Atris did too."

"Are they headed to Telos?"

"I can't tell." Mical stretched out into the Force. He blinked in surprise.

"No," He said softly, "They are coming after us."

"Oh good." Atton breathed out shakily. "Wait, no, that's not good. That's not good at all. Not for us, anyway."

"Good thing we decided not to bring Adel with us after all."

"Schuttas…what are we going to do?" He opened the hyperspace maps.

"We have been traveling for four hours. We already passed Korriban on the maps…at this point they are probably about three hours behind us."

"They're not necessarily following us. We'll have to wait and see."

Mical felt like a youngling again, impatient while Adel soothingly told him to wait. _I miss you,_ Mical thought despairingly, _I miss you so much, so much._

"Don't go crying on me now, blondie," Atton snapped him out of it, "It's not like Atris is defenseless, and need I remind you that Adel fooled those guys into going to Korriban instead, where they were immersed in their leftover Sithspit corpses for quite a few days before veering out into the complete opposite direction of where she is. We'll deal with Sith like we always do."

"True," Said Mical, wondering how he was supposed to justify why a Jedi Council Master had to be comforted by another.

There was nothing for them to do.

Forty hours later, they docked on the Smuggler's Moon. Mical sent a brief transmission to Atris, but ended up having to leave a message since it was nighttime on Telos and the women were probably sleeping. The two men descended onto the platform to face the planet, which was dank and morose, as was proper for a moon that all criminals flocked to. The place still reeked of filth and the Force swam with discontent, but Atton observed that it was a lot better this time around than it had been when he was last here. Still a collection of scum, scoundrels, knaves, villains, and cowards, people even moved differently here, either strutting with the arrogance of one determined to take advantage of someone else, or hunched with the profound wish to remain unnoticed and unmolested.

Atton glanced down at his robes and at Mical's. "We stand out. Schuttas. Well, hopefully this intimidates people from talking to us."

People were wary of them, but Mical had a feeling it had more to do with Atton's slight scowl. It was easy to see Jaq in the body of his fellow Jedi, or rather, the remains of Jaq, when Atton had fled from his life as an assassin to adopt the life of a smuggler. He almost seemed to fit in the crowd, despite his neat robes and proud bearing. Mical, though not cowed, was distinctly uncomfortable in this setting, but Atton seemed right at home.

Of course, as Mical soon found out, this was not necessarily a good thing. His lightsaber was in his hand before he even knew what was happening, and the beam of light vibrated as it deflected a blaster bolt. Atton had his weapon lit as well, but he raised his other hand in a Force wave. The shadowed figures behind them crashed into the walls.

"Idiots," Atton muttered under his breath, but then blasters began firing anew, and the two Jedi dove behind a wall.

"Leftover from the Exchange?" Mical asked.

"Naw," Atton shook his head, "These guys are after me. I recognize one of them. Freaking twi'leks. Deesra's the only one I can stand."

"Try not to kill them," Mical said dryly.

"Can't promise that."

Footsteps echoed down the alley. Atton engaged them before they could turn to the alley, but did turn off his lightsaber before doing so. Mical could only attribute this to Adel, and he turned off his own weapon to help. Within minutes, they had the two shooters drawn behind the wall.

"How did old Jofa know I would be here?" Atton demanded, grabbing the man by the scruff of the neck. "Well? This little ambush wasn't an accident!"

The twi'lek sputtered. 'I—I don't know anything! I was just following orders!'

Mical looked at him. "He's telling the truth."

"Son of a schutta."

"I think there's only one way they could have predicted we would be here." Mical heard more shouting down the alley.

Atton met his eyes. "Brianna's message."

"It must have been intercepted somehow, or wiretapped."

"Or she might have just sent it to Jofa. It's not like there was a receiver on this side of the transmission. She was just sending it randomly to whoever might broadcast this."

Atton turned back to the twi'lek. "Take us to your boss, or I'll break every one of your limbs." He looked like he would do it, even though Mical knew that Atton was far too ingrained in the Light Side at this point to follow through with the threat.

The twi'lek shuddered, "I—I don't take orders from Jofa! I follow orders from my captain!"

"Then take us to your captain."

"He's—he's out there!"

The two Jedi glanced at the alley. There were more footsteps running up.

"These guys don't get the hint do they?" Atton muttered, "Tangling with Jedi Masters. It honestly doesn't get more retarded than that." He met Mical's gaze. "You ready?"

"Ready when you are."

With a nod, Atton grabbed the twi'lek and the two charged out into the alley.


	20. Chapter 20

Return to Life

Chapter 20

It had been some time since Mical fought beside Atton, and the last time they teamed up this way was before Adel left the known galaxy. It was an odd experience now, because both had grown so much stronger in both the Force and their technique, and there were hints Mical could recognize in Atton's motions that reminded him of all the little tricks and details in Adel's teaching—the proper stance, ways to hold the blade, what to do with blaster bolts, easier methods, faster methods, all things she learned by trial and error and then passed along to her students. They disposed of the mercenaries far more easily than they would have in the past, making sure to only maim and not kill, and within minutes the captain was flat on his back, Atton's boot on his chest and the tip of his lightsaber pointed at the throat.

The Force pulsed a little in warning; the Sith were still approaching, but they had only just landed and the danger was not dire. Atton did not even react to the signal from the Force, even though Mical was certain the brunette had sensed it.

"I don't know what caused everyone to think that Jedi are easy pickings," He said almost nonchalantly to the frightened captain, "But we're not."

Mical refrained from commenting that Atton had once thought Jedi were easy pickings himself—had in fact easily picked Jedi off himself, once upon a time. He had never enjoyed baiting the man, even when a part of him hated Atton, for being so callous, so crass, so filthy and undeserving of Adel's love and devotion, and yet still freely given all of it because that was just the person she was. Over the years, he learned better, knew that Atton possessed a certain nobility and integrity and capacity for love. He was still a schutta though.

"Interesting," He said instead, "How no one even bats an eye at the slaughter that just occurred."

"This is the Smuggler's Moon," Atton shrugged, mostly still focused on his captive. "Now, I happen to know Jofa, so you be a good boy and take me to him or else I will slowly press this blade into your throat and trust me, it is painful and can last a _really long time._ I am pretty familiar with torture techniques and I am not afraid to use them on the likes of you. It's not like anyone would miss you, anyway. So _talk._"

Mical had the gift of the Force to know whether Atton meant to go through his promises. The captain did not.

'Alright! Alright I'll talk! I'll talk! Please don't hurt me!'

Mical meant to listen, but something caught his attention and he abruptly turned and ran to look into the alley. A group of aliens were marching toward them with purposeful steps.

"Atton," The blonde Jedi whirled back, "We're getting company."

Atton nodded, knocking the captain out. "We got what we needed." He tucked a comm. into his robes. "Let's get out of the streets."

The two Jedi disappeared from the open just as the aliens arrived. Mical looked back to see the doors slide closed.

"Alright," Atton scratched at his growing beard, "I know where Jofa is, and predictably it's very protected by his men. Since it's just the two of us, we'll have to do this the sneaky way." He explained what the captain told him.

"Who is Jofa?" Mical asked.

"Old acquaintance." Atton paused, and then, as if realizing that Mical was one of the few people who knew about his past and would ever understand him, the former smuggler went on solemnly, "Back when I first arrived on Nar Shaddaa, I was something of a refugee, like everyone else. I had left everything I was, everything I owned, except my wits and good looks. I didn't want to have anything to do with my past, or…or _her_. Jofa was a fellow refugee, crackshot with a blaster, and we ended up working for the same boss in order to summon a bit of credits. Slimy as they came, that one, but we were buddies because I didn't think I could be a good person then, so I was…resigned, to the lot. He liked women and I liked women and we kept each other updated on which whores were good and what not. Also knew a lot of dirty jokes. Was the guy that made me an ace in pazaak. I was always good at pazaak, but he made me ridiculous. Once he started losing money to me, tensions mounted and we started competing against each other. Still, no hard feelings. Killing and dying were part of the game, back then."

Mical swallowed, thinking back to how peacefully Adel had slept with him on one side and Atton on the other, and how uneasy Atton had been. The idea that the former Sith assassin had a preference for prostitutes did not sit well with him. As a Jedi, Mical did understand that prostitutes were often very disturbed women, not virtuous by any means but not exactly evil, but their line of work was a prime circumstance for transfer of diseases and it was generally a filthy, filthy deed to associate with them—the type of people who would were not a good lot. Adel was so pure, so pristine, it made him feel uneasy to think that someone like Atton could be entrusted to take care of her. This was not the first time he had thought this, and considering Atton once made a sport of killing Jedi just like Adel, something far more worrisome than his preferences for women, Mical knew his discomfort was groundless, but it bothered him all the same.

"Come on, I know where his lair is." Atton waved at him. "First we get some 'new' clothes and shed these. I know a shop. If the guy's still here he's a buffoon, I can Force Persuade him to giving us some of his junk."

Force Persuasion was not something Atton condoned, nor did he like the idea of reading minds, and ever since the fall of the Sith Triumverate, he had been very good about practicing his principles. It was a bit alarming to see him drop everything now. As they walked, Mical touched his arm.

"Don't get too excited," He warned, "This may be a cesspool of the galaxy, but our behavior is still a reflection of us, and a reflection of the Order. Don't turn yourself into someone Adel has reason to fear."

"Shut up, Blondie." Still, he could tell Atton heard him, and their progress slowed a little as the former smuggler gathered his bearings. After they walked for a bit, he murmured, "I'm not the man I was back then."

"None of us are," Mical acknowledged, "But you love her with more passion than any of us."

"And passion is not Jedi."

"Well, no, but more than that, passion burns out."

Atton pulled up. "So what do you want us to do? Steal the old fashioned way? These are hardly innocent people, Mical. They'd steal from us as soon as we steal from them, and while you might rather argue about how that doesn't change our own standards, we don't exactly have all the time in the world before _they _possibly arrive on Nar Shaddaa too. My only hope is that if they realize she isn't here, they wouldn't blow up the moon. Force, that vision—Blondie, don't try me."

"Let's go," Mical blew out a breath, wondering why in all of their interactions, he was always the one stuck tolerating the other's preferences and flaws. Always the one bearing the abuse, the insults, the disrespect, having to cater to Atton's whims, Atton's temper, Atton's whining, Atton's complaints. _Don't antagonize him,_ Adel had said to him once, _Let me talk to him, but he won't listen to you._

Adel always sided with Atton when they faced off in front of her. It had been obvious from the start, who she preferred. One time Mical had allowed himself to become upset about this, and Adel had not come to him, too distracted and overwhelmed by her many duties and skeletons in the closet. When he managed to overcome his bitterness, she accosted him on the Ebon Hawk. It felt too late—the timing was off, and he had a feeling she sensed the same. She still said what she needed to say, even if the effect was not what it could have been.

_Mical, every good parent neglects the child they are most confident in._

He knew what she had been trying to say, but it always felt more like she simply did not care as much about him. Given her broad grin when she learned he was Council Master, though, Mical was beginning to think he wronged her again._  
_

Atton suddenly tugged him back, even as he surged backward out of the way of a rain of blaster bolts.

"Sith, more from Jofa." The brunette gritted his teeth. This area was much more populated. It was difficult to say if all the bystanders were innocent civilians, since Nar Shaddaa was less of a society and more of a crime hole, but both Jedi were uneasy about collateral damage. It had always been something Adel went out of her way to avoid, and to dismiss this part of a battle would seem to do her memory a disservice. _Not a memory. Adel is here. Alive. _Just last month this would have been impossible to know for sure. They had to count their blessings.

"Come on, Atton Rand! Or is it Jaq? Tell me, do the Jedi know what you use to be?" A nasty female voice sneered. "Life is pretty ironic, isn't it? It's like poetry; it rhymes: What one eats, one becomes! You consumed your share, didn't you, Jaq? And now you're one of them!"

The two Jedi remained flat against the wall.

"Jofa?" Mical asked.

Atton shook his head. "Sirta Noz. Bounty hunter."

"Let me guess, no chance of negotiating with her is there?"

"Eh…don't think so."

Mical chanced a brief glance out, darting back before he could be shot. Sirta Noz was a Togruta, with very tall montrals that suggested her echolocation skills were superb. This meant hiding behind open walls would be redundant, but Noz was also surrounded by human and Rodian minions, and besides they all needed a clear shot.

"How'd she know your real name?" Mical asked.

"Eh. Slept with her. Might have mentioned it while drunk."

He gave Atton a look.

"Look, Blondie, I don't have to justify myself to _you_."

"I wouldn't ask you to. I just wondered why you gave that delightful life up." Years ago when Adel was with them, Mical would never have been so acerbic toward Atton. He had changed a lot himself. "Why choose a life of celibacy and hard virtues when you could do whatever you want?"

"Why indeed," Atton sneered. "Are we going to just hide here and listen to her drawl or are we going to kill that schutta?"

"Come on," Sirta Noz cooed, "They say that Jedi are tough warriors, brave, chivalrous. You're not scared of little old me, are you? We had such good times together, once upon a time!"

"She's really good," Atton said to Mical, "Think she might even be Force sensitive. There's a reason she's still alive and in the business, you know. We can handle her but it would take a lot of time."

"What do you suggest?"

"Up." Atton glanced up, and Mical did as well. There were fire escapes above them, leading into the dingy, smog-laden black sky. The fire escapes were too high for a normal person to ascend, but two Jedi could jump up with no problem.

"Ladies first," Atton gestured to him.

Mical blew out an exasperated breath, disinclined to quarrel over something as petty as name-calling. He jumped and caught the top of the ladder, hauling himself up over to the first platform. Atton followed soon afterwards.

"I'm disappointed, Rand!" Sirta Noz was getting impatient.

"Come on," Mical urged, "We don't have much time to get up to the roof."

They barely disappeared over it before the bounty hunter unleashed her minions into the alley.

"Where are they?" She roared. "They were here!"

"So much for echolocation skills," Atton muttered. They made their way to the opposite edge of the roof. Mical somersaulted to the next one, and Atton followed swiftly after.

"So much for brave Jedi," Said Mical, "You realize we ran away."

"Right, well, this whole planet is made up of Sirta Noz's. If you want to waste time dealing with every one of them I'll just leave you behind and fetch Brianna's letter myself."

There was an ambush waiting in the next roof, though not for the two Jedi. The bandits waiting there seemed surprised when Atton and Mical landed among them. Mical unleashed a Force wave that flattened everyone and ran across. Atton unleashed another that kept everyone flattened as he followed. This time, instead of flipping over to another rooftop, Mical jumped off the building to land on the ground before, slowing his momentum with the Force.

"There," Atton pointed, ducking with Mical under the overhang to keep out of the way of blaster bolts, which rained down over the street as soon as they both sought shelter. "Through those tunnels. We'll emerge in another set of docks, and his lair is past the platforms, a good way past in one of the alleys, and there use to be a shop right on the way."

The blaster bolts paused.

"Why do they have gates in those tunnels?"

"Don't ask me."

"We better zip to those tunnels before they have a chance to aim."

Atton nodded grimly.

They raced out, hastening their speed with the Force. Atton abruptly pulled his lightsaber out to deflect the bolts shooting their way as they waited for the door to open. One bolt singed Mical's sleeve, but they darted inside.

The Force rippled again.

"Sirta Noz."

"Let's just get going," Mical tugged at Atton's arm, and they ran into the darkness just as the doors reopened.

"After them!" Sirta Noz roared.

Suddenly, there was an abrupt tug in the Force, like someone had yanked a cord that was somehow attached to Mical's brain. He mis-stepped and fell on his face, unable to coordinate his limbs. Beside him, Atton was similarly sprawled.

_What was that?_

_Atton?_ Adel's voice resonated through his head. She sounded terrified and there was a flaring of a bond that had long been dormant, for years and years and years. Suddenly, he could sense her pain and nausea. _Mical? Where? Hurts. Help. Help!_

"Sith," Atton scrambled to his feet. "What was that?"

Mical stumbled upright. "Adel," He gasped, "She is in pain. The flowers—it's already started—what Revan warned me about—" It was difficult to form coherent thought. Adel's terror was complete, and she was suffering, the Force bond practically writhing with it.

And then blaster bolts shot toward them. Sirta Noz's minions had caught up.

"Schuttas!" Atton whipped his lightsaber out. His Force signature, formerly subdued due to his Jedi training, abruptly began churning, and Mical swallowed his dread when he realized that the other man was giving in to his anger, an ugly darkness swirling in his aura. "You want a fight, Sirta Noz? You got one!" He let out a warcry, stunning the minions and charged at them, flashing his lightsaber in a deadly frenzy. Noz shot him in the shoulder, but he did not even flinch, slicing her vertically in half.

"Atton!" Mical cried out, horrified, but Atton whirled around and his eyes glowed bright yellow in the darkness and he was lunging at the Council Master with his lightsaber raised high, swinging with the intent to kill. Mical blocked.

"Atton, stop this!"

The sight of the other lightsaber gave Atton pause, and slowly he seemed to gather himself. The yellow glow of his irises faded to their normal brown.

"Atton," Mical called again, softer this time. The pressure on his blade eased, and he deactivated it.

Atton dropped the lightsaber on the ground.

"What happened?" Mical asked, completely baffled by what just transpired.

"I…" Atton trailed off, "I don't know. This…this place…and Adel…I just panicked. Do…do you think she's okay?"

Mical reached along the newly awakened bond. Telos was far away from Nar Shaddaa, in a completely different quadrant of the galaxy. The sense of her was fainter than when she first reached out to them, but he could sense her rapidly becoming ill. She was not alright at all. Whatever reprieve she had gotten when she first exited the coffin was over. Her sickness had begun.

"We better get Brianna's message, and then get out of here before the Sith come. Come on, we don't have much time."

"We'd need days to get back to Telos." Atton looked a bit disoriented.

"Right, well, the longer we dawdle the longer the journey back. Come on, the Force will protect her. She has Atris." Mical levitated the lightsaber back to Atton's hands. The other took it silently.

"Let's go," Mical turned and went. He heard Atton follow behind.

_Hold on, Adel. We are coming as soon as we can…_


	21. Chapter 21

Return to Life

Chapter 21

Exhausted from her battle with Darth Traya, no one was surprised that the Exile then locked herself away from everyone, but it was worrying that she chose Kreia's room. Several times they went by the shut doors to call to her, but there was no answer from within, other than a steady, wordless stream from the Force: _Leave me alone, please leave me alone._

Everyone felt like crying, even the men. Atton, who had washed his mouth of filthy language sometime into his training with Adel, began cursing like he was drunk, much to the visible aggravation of Mira. Visas and Brianna, who had complementary temperaments, sat together in their bunks, obviously miserable. Bao-Dur locked himself away to work at his workbench, which left Mical sitting outside the door to Kreia's room, waiting for some sign that he could go in to talk to her.

_"She doesn't want to talk to you, Blondie. Get out of there and do something useful."_

_"I'm trying," _Mical said as calmly as he could, _"I want to take a look at her and see if she has any wounds, but she's not letting me in."_

Even though she definitely heard him, the Exile did not respond.

They chose a destination for the Ebon Hawk without consulting the leader, which was just as well because there was really only one place to go: Dantooine. It was her old home, as Visas pointed out, and the only other place was Coruscant. No one wanted to deal with Coruscant, and no one wanted to subject Adel to the memories of her trial there. The Enclave was in ruins, nothing left but ghosts, but there were people there who knew her as a hero personally, and they had to restore the Jedi Order from there anyhow. Atton punched in the coordinates and away they went.

Adel came out half an hour before they were due out of hyperspace. She did not seem surprised by where they were headed when they told her, and it was difficult to say if it was because she expected as much or if she simply did not care.

_"I want to thank all of you," _She said to everyone gathered in the mess hall, _"For sticking with me all this time. Your support has meant the world to me, and I am honored to have known all of you and…to call you friend. Now that the danger is past, things have settled down, and I know that many of you might want to go pursue your own dreams now."_

_"What dreams?" _Mira broke in, before the Exile could say any more. _"What life do you think we're all striving for? Do you think I want to go back to being a bounty hunter? Brianna back to her ice cave on Telos?" _Brianna made a face at this, but did not argue. _"You think Visas has anywhere to go?"_

Adel wiped her eyes, looking tired. _"I just wanted you all to know that…I have no plans, really, none more specific than simply reconstructing the Enclave and recruiting more Force-sensitive students and begin…teaching, I guess. Starting anew. I know that I taught all of you how to use the Force, but the Jedi Code is not the only code there is, and the life of a Jedi is not necessarily the life you should live, nor the life you need to live. There are ways to serve the galaxy through other means, and there are times when we have to serve ourselves too. You all have your own goals in life. I'm just saying that you don't have to put them off any longer."_

_"You don't want us around anymore?" _Atton demanded.

She stared at him. _"That's not what I'm saying at all."_

_"Well do you want us around then?"_

She struggled visibly. _"I don't want to make you feel obligated to stay if you don't want to."_

_"Why won't we want to?" _Brianna inquired. _"You're family."_

If anything, this seemed to undo Adel even more than Atton's accusation had.

_"I think we all need a vacation,"_ Bao-Dur announced, _"We just defeated a great evil that threatened our galaxy. This calls for celebration, and a break. Mandalore and HK-47 are already gone, but the rest of us can have some fun and enjoy each other's company."_

_"Dantooine's not exactly a planet resort,"_ Atton drawled.

_"It's not Telos either," _Mira replied, _"And without the threat of Sith, it's a rather beautiful planet. I'm for it."_

_"I have no objection to taking some time to enjoy ourselves," _Visas murmured, _"I feel no hurry to rush into rebuilding."_

_"And I feel no hurry to abandon you," _Brianna said to Adel, _"At this point, you're the only family I have. This is the only family I have. Even if Atton is a prick."_

_"Hey!"_

_"I wouldn't want to leave it unless I really have to, and I don't. There's nothing for me out there. This is where I belong."_

There were murmurs of agreement, and Adel's face split into a wide smile that somehow looked more heartbreaking than cheering. She had honestly been afraid, Mical realized, afraid that they would all leave her and she would be alone, alone in her duties and her burdens. Her relief was so complete, they all felt it.

_"You're so silly sometimes," _Atton reproached her gently. _"You're not getting rid of us that easy. If we wanted to go we'd have left with Mandalore and HK. I gotta get to the cockpit to land this ship. Be right back."_

They went, the ship descending into the atmosphere. The administration came out to greet them, but Adel withdrew to the back instead of meeting them as she usually would. Mical was the one who ended up talking for the most part, explaining that the Sith have been defeated, and that they would like a place to rest for a while.

_"Yes, of course," _The officials glanced at each other. Adel walked past them as they were led to their quarters. _"Is the Jedi Exile alright?" _They asked Mical.

_"Of course not,"_ He replied a bit snappishly, _"She just fought two Sith Lords, one of them on her own. We would appreciate it if you can tell everyone to leave her alone for now. I will be responsible for this group. If there is anything, come to me."_

Even though everyone heard it, no one complained, not even Atton, who usually had something to say whenever Mical voiced any opinions whatsoever, and sometimes when he did not.

_How does a Jedi take a vacation?_

It was late at night, when everyone else was asleep, that Adel went out into the Khoonda Plains. Mical, who had been awake and worried about her, followed her out into the darkness. They walked with only the moonlight to illuminate their way, and it was soon obvious where she was headed. Home.

Except it was not really home anymore, and had not been for a long time.

_"I came here once to look for a Jedi Master. Then I came to meet all three living Jedi Masters. Each time…I didn't have much of a chance to pay attention to what happened here. Now, what do I come to? There is nothing alive that I am looking for. I stare at the skeletons of the happy days of my childhood. There is nothing here for me to find here, except ghosts of the Jedi, and it feels no better than Korriban. Same violence, same death, same loss."_

_"I found you here," _Mical reminded her, hurt.

_"Yes, I found you," _Adel drew an arm around Mical's waist, and it suddenly occurred to him that she was shorter than him, smaller. When they were children, the last time he saw Adel was when she was going through her growth spurt, before he reached adolescence, and she had towered over him then. Now, she was almost frail, tired and weary. He had grown into a man, and she was a battered woman.

He drew an arm around her as well and held her close, wondering if this was what Atton always meant whenever he jeered that Adel did not need _him_, Mical, because he always thought of her as this impenetrable fortress of strength and so could never properly protect her as a man should for a woman. The thought was sobering.

At least she allowed him to accompany her here, instead of gazing at the ruins alone. It was dark, and the shadows were long and broad and deep, like heavy black shrouds over the places where the children once laughed, Adel's voice the brightest and loveliest of them all. It was, indeed, like looking at a skeleton, a mere mark to tell the world that something beautiful was once here and now is gone. Every once in a while they heard an animal inside. The wild beasts of Dantooine were quick to invade an abandoned ruin.

_"I thought I could cry," _Adel leaned into him, _"I was trying very hard to focus on finding Master Lamar and ignoring the horror around me. Then I found you…and then I had something else to focus on. I was so happy. I just concentrated on that. I think Master Lamar thought I had lost my mind, I was so happy."_

Mical did remember her Force signature had been light then. Since their initial meeting it had dimmed, weighted down by the tasks ahead and the path she must walk. It seemed remembering that fleeting moment of joy did not comfort her much now. In the darkness, surrounded as they were by the sounds of the night, she seemed sad and forlorn.

_"I was happy to see you too," _Mical admitted to her, _"I wasn't sure I would ever see you again."_

A long silence fell as they contemplated the empty Enclave.

_"I'm not sure I can do it,"_ She whispered, _"I feel…exhausted. Deep in my bones. The mere thought of doing anything makes me wish I were dead. There is so much work ahead, at least with the Sith it was straightforward but this—I don't even know where to start. How do you make something out of nothing?"_

_"It's not nothing. You have us; you are not alone. There is time to take a breath and acclimate. No one is pressuring you. The danger is over."_

_"I don't want to even start. I won't be able to finish."_

_"You will. You just need some rest, that is all."_

Even then, Mical knew he was wrong, but the Exile did not correct him. They spent the night there, sleepless. When dawn broke, they went back to the others. Mira, ever affectionate, greeted Adel with a hug.

_"Are you alright?" _She asked.

_"I'm fine,"_ The Exile replied with a smile.

Later that afternoon, the group went to the Enclave together, which sounded like a bad idea to Mical. Surprisingly, however, the silence of the place was not only washed away by sunlight, it was somehow purged by the liveliness of its visitors. Mira and Atton got into a loud argument that echoed remorselessly throughout the area. Somehow they managed to loop Brianna into the fold, and even Visas and Bao-Dur had to laugh at their antics. They disposed of the creatures in the halls noisily, and the Exile smiled, as if realizing that she really was not alone, that she was with family and this family would stay with her. There had been hope in her eyes.

_"Pure pazaak!"_ Mira said in a high squeaky voice every time she picked open a lock, much to Atton's annoyance. _"Pure pazaak! Purer pazaak! Purest pazaak!"_

_"Look, clothes!"_ Atton tried to distract everyone. _"Wait a minute…"_

_"These look like the ones Atris likes to wear," _Brianna raced inside, _"Look, white. What, this one has embroidery! I thought the Jedi were supposed to wear plain clothes."_

_"I want one that looks like what Visas wears," _Said Mira, _"Without the hood in front of the eyes because I actually do need to see."_

_"Right," _Said Visas, quirking a corner of her lip. _"You want Sith Miraluka clothing."_

_"Let's make Atton wear the embroidered one."_

_"Wait what?"_

_"You're the one who got all excited."_

_"Wait, what? No! Make Mical wear them. He's the girl! I mean—schuttas! This is not cool!"_

_"Don't mess everything up," _The Exile broke in, _"We need to save some for the little ones when they grow up."_

There was an abrupt silence.

_"Oh this is exciting!" _Mira hopped, _"Adel is going to teach kids. I can't wait to start recruiting!"_

This ended up being a cue for everyone to start talking about plans for recruiting students. Mical looked at Adel over the din, and noted that she seemed a little overwhelmed, though in a good way.

_"Nar Shaddaa? Are you kidding me?"_

_"There are children there! You know that as well as I do, and most of them are the sons and daughters of thieves and prostitutes who don't care at all if they are even alive in the morning, let alone whether they have enough food or clothing on their backs."_

_"I agree," _Visas spoke up, and Mical thought briefly that she had never been so forthcoming when he first met her. _"It would be best to save children, rather than approach parents who would like to hold on to them. After a war, there would be plenty of that, people suffering from wounds inflicted during the chaos. They would be happy to get rid of their children, and their children will be happy to get rid of their parents. A Jedi's life is not for everyone, but it should be depicted as a salvation, especially after everything that has happened. What do you think, Exile?"_

_"She doesn't want to think," _Mical cut in as Adel raised a hand to her temple, a little distressed, _"We're not here to plan."_

_"That's true. Darn, we suck at vacationing, if our idea of a break is to go look around Jedi ruins."_

_"These ruins are kind of cool, though. When there aren't Sith assassins around."_

_"Can you imagine little Jedi running around these halls?"_

Adel and Mical remained silent, letting the others talk on. Adel was looking down the halls as if she really did see the Jedi walking up and down. Mical himself was flashing back to the days when hundreds of Jedi walked the place, younglings giggling and Jedi Masters smiling indulgently. The tomblike feel of the place was such a stark contrast to what it once was.

_"This was the Exile's home,"_ Visas was the one who realized their melancholy, _"Whatever novelty we feel her, we should treat this place with the respect it deserves."_

That calmed everyone down. There was a moment of silence, almost like a vigil, for the people who once dwelled here.

_"Training sabers are in that other closet, I think." _Adel ended the awkwardness with forced cheer, _"They're really tiny and cute. You'd like them, Brianna."_

_"Oh!"_

Brianna was not the only one who liked them. Mira managed to talk everyone into sparring with the training lightsabers. They were very short and the handles were thin, and everyone was fooling around more than actually practicing. Adel finally broke from her depression and laughed as she clashed weapons with Brianna.

_"Ow!"_

_"That would have been a severed arm had it been the real thing."_

_"Atton, how in the galaxy did we trust you with a real weapon?"_

_"I wasn't trying very hard!"_

_"This is absolutely adorable!" _Brianna exclaimed, _"I had no idea, but it makes so much sense for little Jedi to train with little weapons!"_

_"Blue," _Bao-Dur was counting the colors with Mical, _"Here's another blue one. Green, green. It's mostly blue and green. Here's a white one…oh, this one is red."_

_"The children have more colors than the adults," _Said Adel with a smile, _"To make it more fun for them. There are some bright pink ones. They're the ones with the pink handles."_

Atton turned one on. _"Oh for crying out loud!" _He turned the hot pink beam off. _"That hurt my eyes. That hurt my eyes!"_

_"We'll be fixing a lot of them when the little ones come," _Adel grinned at Bao-Dur, _"I can guarantee you, and Mical can attest. The number of lightsabers we broke—they don't really stand up to water, not the training ones, anyway. One time Mical went swimming in the swimming pool with his training saber hitched to his suit—"_

_"There's a swimming pool?" _Mira interrupted with eager eyes.

The swimming pool was, of course, long empty and filled with mold. Mira and Brianna hugged Adel when the Exile seemed in danger of losing her composure. It was strangely warm to see the girls huddle around her, soft and tender and affectionate, like sisters.

_"We are totally having a sleepover in your room tonight," _Mira said to Adel, _"The last time I had…well, don't really want to think about it, but sleepovers are always the best. Visas, you have to join us. The boys are not invited."_

_"I'm not even going to ask," _Atton muttered.

_"I've never had a sleepover," _Brianna turned to Visas, _"Do Miralukas have sleepovers?"_

_"It's a human thing, I think."_

_"Rule number one!" _Mira grinned evilly, _"Only pink sleepclothes allowed."_

_"Wait, what?" _Adel protested.

_"Yes!" _Mira turned her smirk to the Exile. _"We are going to dress you in pink, oh mighty Sith-slayer. Yes we are."_

_"But there aren't any pink robes in the closet."_

_"Well you know what that means."_

_"Wait, what? Wait, no!" _Adel released a shriek that Mical could only describe as girly as Mira dragged her away from the room with the pool. _"No! I'm not going to Khoonda to borrow pink clothes!"_

_"Oh yes you are and yes we are and Brianna grab Visas!"_

Even Visas was laughing as she struggled without much heart in it. The women headed out.

_"They are nuts," _Atton said to Bao-Dur, _"They are absolutely nuts. Women are crazy."_

_"You know you want to see the General in pink," _Bao-Dur's lips twitched, _"You and every man who ever served under her."_

_"Noooooooooooooo—there you are wrong. I'm more interested in knowing what she looks like in her underwear. Oh hey, I actually know what she looks like in her underwear! Look at that! I guess the logical step after that is to see what she looks like _without _her underwear…Mmmmm…"_

_"Lecher," _Mical muttered, but luckily Atton did not hear it.

_"Nooooooooooooooo!" _Adel was full on laughing down the halls, _"Echani warrior and bounty hunter in _pink?_ Why would you two even agree to do this?"_

Hours later, the women returned to the Enclave without actual pink clothes, but they did bring stuffed toys and candles and sleeping mats and sheets, because the mattresses in the building was moldy and infested with mites and they therefore intended to camp out in the gardens. Mical was worried that Adel might agonize over the site where the three Jedi Masters died, so he and Atton and Bao-Dur cleared out the decaying corpses while the women were away. In the end, the men were invited, and they all sat after showering under the nighttime sky, Adel at the center and Brianna and Visas on each side of her, Mira stretching along their feet, and the men flanked them on three sides. T3 was ordered to keep watch for nighttime predators, and they lit the candles in a wide circle as if the cheerful flames would form a protective ring around them.

_"I think I can do it," _Adel said after conversation died down for a moment. _"I think we can do it. I'm glad you're all here. I'm really glad I met all of you, and that you all stayed."_

_"Pfft. It's not about you, you know," _Mira lied blatantly enough that Mical could sense it through the Force, _"Because we all know that if Atton leaves your side he's going to screw up the galaxy, and I have to stay and keep him in line."_

_"Oh please. Mira, you're a total shrew."_

_"I pledged my life to you," _Visas said more seriously, _"You have come to mean the galaxy to me, Exile. There is no meaning in life away from your side."_

_"Don't be sad," _Brianna said to her, _"We're all here for you until the end. We've all lost things in life, but there is hope now. Things can only get better."_

Mical had believed that everything was going to be alright. They were a small group, but they were a tight group, and strong and formidable. What more was needed? He had a feeling that Adel had thought so too, that her Exile was finally over and she found people who loved her as much as she loved them.

But it was different, to build from scratch something lost to war and to the years, and Mical alone knew what pained her every time a youngling asked the Exile a question she had answered once, many years ago as a padawan, to look upon Bastila Shan and realize so much has changed, her own colleagues had changed, and while all of them either never belonged to the Jedi before or were never banished, Adel had been cast out in her moment of greatest need, and it was a wound that could only be fixed by those who were long dead. She never quite believed Mical when he said they had all chosen to follow her; some part of her always doubted that their will had been truly free, and she had not looped them in simply because of her talents at forming connections. Her scars from her exile were further branded by the final words of the three Jedi Masters killed by Kreia. She could not stop seeing ghosts everywhere, because to her, she was guilty, in a way Mical never was.

_"One does not go out alone to combat great evils," _She had once said to Bastila, years after the slow restoration of the order started, _"One goes out to flee the ghosts of the past, the burdens of life. To die through sacrifice. The cold reality is that Revan committed many crimes and cannot rest in this galaxy. He went out to seek his punishment."_

Bastila had naturally been angry at this. _"And you are so innocent, _Exile._ Perhaps you should go find your punishment there as well."_

The older woman admitted that Adel had smiled at this, a knowing smile, and it was not long afterwards before she left. It was hard to be civil to Bastila after that, but Mical had managed, because he understood that they each loved a hero and lost their love to the Unknown Regions. He would have followed her, but there was much to do in the galaxy, and Adel wanted him to stay.

_"I live through you," _She had said to him once, when the time of her departure was near, _"It is the only way I can live. Be happy and I shall share your joy. Be at peace, and I shall share your serenity. Live and I shall share your life."_

The greatest gift a student bestows upon his teacher is to prosper and remember that which brought him here. So it was that when the new Order progressed, Mical made sure that the Jedi Exile was known by all who trained within its temples. It was the only way he could be happy, the only way he could be at peace, and the only way he could feel close to the woman he loved above all else._  
_


	22. Chapter 22

Return to Life

Chapter 22

_There are people _everywhere.

"We should have had a change of clothes back on Telos," Atton grumbled, "Admittedly I wasn't thinking of that as much as I was of getting out of there as fast as possible."

"We could strip the bounty hunters." _Just like old times._

Atton was obviously thinking the same thing. "Heh," He chuckled, "Haven't done that in a while."

"We'd have to go all the way back though."

"Right. Let's not do that."

"So how are we going to get past all the mercenaries up there? We can't hope to fool all of them using the Force. There's bound to be one or two strong-willed individuals among them."

"Well…whatever would get us across the quickest."

Not for the first time, Mical wondered what Adel would have done in this situation. She did not always have a Jedi robe, and she was always one who wanted to draw as little attention as possible.

"Force persuade two mercenaries, get them over here, knock them out, strip them, then waltz over there."

"Sounds like a plan," Atton approved.

Adel was still crying to them over the bond, her call clearer and louder than it should have been given the distance, but considering everything they had learned since her return, this did not seem so strange. It was hard to say if she could hear their responses and attempts at comfort, because she just kept calling for them and exclaiming that she hurt.

"What is Atris doing?" Atton growled as he wrapped the belt around his waist. Mical shrugged on a vest.

"I'm sure she's doing her best."

"Witch…"

Mical unhooked the blaster at his belt to test it in his hand. Once upon a time, this had been his only weapon. Over the past few years, he hardly ever touched it, and now it actually felt unnatural, awkward, resting in his palm.

He remembered how Adel guided him to assembling his own lightsaber. Atton had kicked up a fuss about how Mical was taught first. He was such a pain in the neck to deal with back then, something of a lecher, a murderer, a thief, a coward. Out of all of them, Mical felt Atton was the worst, and it always puzzled him why Adel felt any kinship with this man.

"The Sith are still coming," The other man interrupted his thoughts.

"We better hurry then."

They made it through the lines of mercenaries without being stopped. Mical copied Atton's brisk and confident walk, knowing that presence was important in these areas and Atton Rand definitely knew the presence required to remain unnoticed. Adel had suddenly switched to playing pazaak over the Force, something that baffled Mical until he realized that Atton was actually playing with her to distract her from whatever suffering she was going through. He hoped that Brianna's message had answers because things were simply becoming too strange for Mical to be comfortable with.

"Do you think the Sith can sense her communicating to us all the way here?" He asked Atton.

"I don't know," Atton replied, a bit distracted, "It makes no sense that they're heading here in the first place. If they could sense the connection they'd know she's on Telos. And yet why are they here? We're hardly broadcasting ourselves…"

This was no time for speculation. They had to retrieve Brianna's message and then return to Telos as soon as possible. Not for the first time, Mical wished they could risk contacting her directly, but there was a reason Brianna chose this roundabout route and did not contact Mical or Atton instead. Some of the Sith must be lingering around Dantooine, tracing transmissions.

"That must be it," Mical realized, despite his prior decision not to speculate. "Brianna's message. We don't know when it was transferred. I know the message was sent, but I don't know when. It could have been a vision of the future, one that gave us just enough time to race ahead of the Sith."

The two Jedi suddenly stopped, seeing a gang of men assault a female bounty hunter right in front of their eyes. She held her own, but was soon overwhelmed. Mical gritted his teeth, torn between the need to save her and the press for time.

"Force," He punched Atton in the arm, "Adel did not train us to be apathetic." He raised his blaster, but Atton was faster, firing into the gang.

Without the help of lightsabers to deflect the plasma bullets, Mical and Atton was forced to dodge behind two opposite walls. The bounty hunter took advantage of the distraction to flee, leaving two men against fifteen thugs. The Force was on their side, however, and fifteen thugs turned into fifteen wounded and possibly dead.

"Sith," Atton growled, "We shouldn't have done that. We've lost time."

"Adel wouldn't have wanted us to just walk away from something like that," Mical said as he tucked his blaster away, "It would dishonor everything she represents."

"She's not a sith-begotten _symbol_, you banthaspit—she's a _woman_—"

"Some women are great enough to be symbols in of themselves, Atton." Mical did not want to argue this point. He raced ahead. Atton cursed, following behind.

"That is precisely the problem, and the reason why she left. You all thought of her as this symbol of goodness. Even the freaking Sith think she's a freaking goddess. She's supposed to stand on broken legs, bear weights on a broken back, all because she's _too good, too strong_ to be hurt for long, to be weak for long, and everyone just expects her to get the job done and do her duty without any regard to what _she _wants, and Adel being Adel, she _never _complained because everyone would think complaining is _beneath _her."

"Oh shut it," Mical snapped, irritated, though neither man broke their pace "As if you were much better. It's not like you were enough to keep her here, and it's really interesting how you are so determined to prove that she is flawed, that she is fallible, that she is as much of a slut as _you _are, constantly trying to seduce her to bed. Don't think I don't know it—she was _exhausted _having to fend off your advances, and was relieved when you finally got the hint and left her alone. She didn't need anyone bringing her _down_. Those burdens were hers to bear and hers alone, and there was no one else to take them from her and whether she was a common housewife or a bloody goddess, no one could make those burdens go away—that was hardly our fault. What she needed had been someone even greater than she, who she could rely on and trust to handle things when something goes wrong. That had been Kreia, and when Kreia betrayed her there was no one left. Yes, we failed her, yes, it might not have been ideal for us to place faith in her strength and wisdom when she doubted herself so much, but she certainly did not need someone like _you_, doing your best to open up all the weaknesses she could not tolerate in herself and forcing her to cover up her scars in an effort to _shut you up _and stop you from discouraging her. Don't talk to me about blame, Atton Rand. She left because she was a dead woman forced to animate for the living and it was the only thing she could do, and neither you nor I could have helped her because neither of us were good enough."

_I wish you two would not fight,_ Adel's voice suddenly rang, coherent and familiar, almost exactly like her old self. _I left because I was selfish and the galaxy no longer felt like my home, but it was yours and I did not want to take you two away from it. You all should stop blaming yourself._

"Ha," Atton ducked behind some carts to take stock of the street, "We have to go to the right over there. And you're kidding yourself if you think the galaxy felt any more like my home than it felt like yours. I would have done anything to be with you. I would have followed you to the nine Corellian hells."

Mical was silent. Atton rarely voiced his love for Adel in front of him, and only when he was mocking Mical, or claiming he loved her too little to deserve her.

Adel was still in pain, and her presence through the bond flickered and muffled a little, as if she fell unconscious. Neither Jedi knew if she heard what Atton said.

"She is here now," Mical said softly, "And we better hurry up with Brianna's message to ensure it stays that way."

The rest of the journey was completed in cold silence. They arrived at a tiny corridor where a dingy door was hidden behind stacks of wood.

"That's where the captain said the headquarters were," Said Atton as they hid behind the walls, "Guards are posted _inside_, and they can see outside. Since Jofa wants me dead, I doubt posing as your prisoner would work in our favor."

_Would probably be better if you were killed._ Mical was feeling less than charitable. He held his tongue, however, because now was not the time to argue.

One hour before the Sith arrive. Adel's presence was muted. Everything was up in the air, nothing was certain, and there was no telling if Nar Shaddaa would not be blown up as soon as the Sith arrive.

"How many are there?" Atton asked.

Mical squinted even though it was not really necessary to sense the life forms. "A good number. We can probably just fight our way through it. It would be easier, probably, than talking."

Atton was a bundle of nerves, and Mical was too, so this was just to their taste. They kicked open the door and shot the guards closest to them. Once inside, Atton switched to his lightsaber, and Mical followed suit. They cut down the mercenaries before even looking at which room they were in. Despite the dingy exterior, the inside was furnished luxuriously, almost as well as a royal palace of Alderaan, though on a smaller scale.

"Sheesh!" Atton exclaimed, "Jofa's doing well by himself. Let's head to the back."

There were more mercenaries, of course, but against two Jedi they were no match at all. Room after room opened up to more surprised minions, to the point where Mical began to wonder if he was wrong after all and talking would have been faster. At length, with bodies littering the ground, Atton palmed open another door and stepped inside, Mical ready to deflect more blaster bolts, but the former Sith assassin suddenly deactivated his lightsaber and smirked.

"Jofa," He drawled, and his voice sounded almost oily and nothing like what Mical heard from him before. If he had heard Atton speak this way to the Exile, he probably would have tried harder to keep the two away from each other. "Not very smart, sending your men to hunt down Jedi Masters, especially not when one of them knows all the tricks of the trade."

Jofa was human, but he looked more like a rodent, his eyes beady and his nose sharp and pointy, his hair a mousy brown and limpid over his forehead. He was sitting behind a desk, two thugs flanking his sides. Mical still had his lightsaber activated, so he turned it off to let Atton talk.

"Atton!" Jofa exclaimed, his fear very obvious through the Force despite his smooth eloquence, "Fancy seeing you! Well, you certainly don't disappoint…"

"I propose a deal," Said Master Rand, "Give me something I need, and I let you live."

"Heh, well…that's not very becoming of a Jedi, is it?" Jofa stuttered, "Your Order do not make threats!"

"You obviously don't realize the number of dead bodies that are lying outside your door," Atton replied dryly. "We don't threaten; we warn. It's up to you to turn it into a threat, and it's far kinder than what the Sith will give you, I assure you."

"Hehe…well…wha—what do you need?"

"Your console."

"My—my console…?"

"This is a waste of our time," Atton growled, turning on his lightsaber to point at Jofa's throat, "Step away from your desk, now. Mical, watch them. I'm going to hack into the console."

"You need me," Jofa interrupted, visibly sweating, "Only I have the security clearance. I have the passwords. Without them, you can't log in—"

"I'll manage," Atton took the console, leaving Mical to watch the three.

Listening to him type on the keys reminded him of seeing Adel and Atton hacking an old terminal of the Enclave. There had been no more Jedi Masters on Dantooine, of course, and therefore no one else to help them retrieve the necessary information locked away in the terminals. Adel had been a superb hacker, Atton a close second, so the two spent quality time hacking, fixing, laughing and pounding the tables in mock frustration whenever they hit a block. She had those moments with everyone, when it seemed like their companionship was enough to make her happy.

They had all honestly been so hopeful. They had no idea it was not enough.

Brianna's transmission began to play, but Atton stopped it in the middle of the first word. "Found it," He announced unnecessarily to Mical.

"Great."

"Can we go?" Jofa asked nervously. It was a bit disappointing that the leader of the mercenaries was this…pathetic.

"Nope." Mical heard Atton plug something in to download it. "You stay riiiiiiiiiiight where you are, squirt. Wait until Papa Jedi finishes up."

It occurred to the Jedi Council Master that Atton was sounding less and less like himself—or perhaps more and more, considering his past. He adjusted his grip on his lightsaber and hoped the download would finish soon.

"Done!" Atton said at last, "We will be taking our leave now." He walked up to the three and Mical barely sensed the swirl of dark energy before he saw the other's lightsaber flicker on and three heads rolled onto the floor.

Adel abruptly woke. _Atton?_

Her voice seemed to banish the darkness and the brunette froze, staring at what he had done, as if he had woken from a trance.

"Sith."

Then they both jerked their heads up as the Sith exited hyperspace and went into orbit above Nar Shaddaa.


	23. Chapter 23

Return to Life

Chapter 23

It was raining too hard to fly the modified landspeeder. Mira pulled it to a stop and landed, thumping the ceiling.

"We're going to have to stay put," She told the others, "I don't want us to get stuck in a mudslide. That would delay us even longer than if we just wait and see what happens."

"The storm will not ease for at least a day," Visas said, "And the storm would help hide us from the Sith in orbit, but I agree with this decision. We should wait until the rain eases a little bit before moving on."

"We have to cut through a valley, that's the thing," Mira added, "It's a tight fit in there to begin with. I don't want to get buried.

Lightning flashed. It was nighttime, which meant the headlights of the speeder and the lightning were the only illumination they had in the pouring rain. Mira turned off the engines to conserve fuel. The four bodies in the speeder should be enough to keep it warm, even without Force bubbles. Visas was maintaining a shield, however, to hide them from the Sith. Though the attacks had ceased for more than a week, there was a substantial enough number remaining that once everyone agreed to let Deesra handle reconstruction in the Khoonda settlements, everyone else was to make their way to the other side of the planet, opposite the Sith, and try to leave Dantooine from there. The speeder had hyperspace capabilities, but it was an uncomfortable fit for four Jedi and their food and water. Still, given what could have happened, no one complained.

"I miss the Ebon Hawk," Brianna said despondently.

"I miss it too," Said Mira.

Bao-Dur was looking at the holomaps projecting on his lap next to the former bounty hunter.

"Telos is a short distance away from Dantooine physically, but the hyperspace trails are warped and it would actually take us longer to get there than it would if we went to Onderon."

"Onderon was attacked by the Sith," Brianna protested, "If they behave the same way they are here, they'd probably be hanging around in orbit too."

"We could go to Agamar. That's about two minutes in hyperspace. Then we jump, Agamar to Bandomeer, Bandomeer to the Yavin system. The whole trip should take about three hours total. By then we would probably draw a long enough gap between us and the Sith that we can head to the Peragus debris field, get them confused there, and while their sensors are disrupted, Telos, jump ship, Nar Shaddaa where hopefully I can kick Atton's retarded butt." Mira was of the opinion that Atton always needed his backside kicked.

"If Atton did go to Nar Shaddaa with Adel," Brianna pointed out, "He probably did not stay there, and there is no telling whether he got my message or not. He wouldn't have been able to acknowledge it anyway."

The rain hammered on top of them, slamming into the metal of the speeder.

"Why do I feel like this time around is ten times harder than the last time we had to do anything with Adel?" Mira pouted a little. "At least last time there wasn't the whole confusion of what everyone knew, where everyone was, and what everyone was doing."

"There is no use in comparing this to the past," Said Visas in her gentle tones, "We had a different purpose then. Before, we were confronting the Sith. This time, we are running from them. The less we all know about Adel's whereabouts, the better. If they do end up following us, we are less likely to lead them to her."

The cabin fell silent. Rain continued to slam down.

"Hard to believe," Mira murmured out loud, "I guess I was younger, more foolish then, but somehow facing the Sith back then wasn't as intimidating as it is now. I'm really scared that we'll mess up. Back then I didn't care that much."

"It helped that the Exile was with us," Visas pointed out, "She had a way of inspiring confidence in everyone, even when she had none herself."

_I don't like it when people suffer, _Mira once said to her, a certain desperation tightening her throat because they were facing an unimaginable evil and how were nine individuals, including HK-47, supposed to defeat a whole Sith army? Adel had smiled back and said, _Neither do I, but all of us on this ship suffered, from the mistakes of others as well as those of our own making. You, too, have suffered, and that suffering has made you who you are. Strong, brave, capable. We will do our best to minimize it all, but I'm sure if the Force is not with us, it has its reasons. Suffering is not preferable, but over the years I've come to believe that it is not strictly bad._

"Why did she leave?" Brianna whispered, sounding small. "I thought we were doing fine. We had each other. We had our dynamics all worked out. She was always quiet. She never said anything."

"She had the deaths of millions on her soul," Said Visas quietly, "And years of lonely exile. For people like that, the past is more real than the present."

"We've talked about this over and over," Mira shook her head. "She's here now, that's all that matters."

"What if she leaves again?"

"I don't think she would." Bao-Dur turned off the holomap, casting a pitch black over the car. Thunder rumbled in the distance. "If Brianna's decryption is accurate, the General would not be in a hurry to leave for the Unknown Regions again."

"It's not like she expected a hero's welcome over there," Mira bit out a little more sarcastically than she meant to.

"Sometimes death is needed to achieve life. There is a story," Visas murmured, "Told among my people, of a man who saw darkness in everything. In the parents who bore him, his friends and neighbors—no matter how beautiful in the Force they shone, they seemed ugly to him. He was of the belief that Life was inherently tainted, and every foul news, every evil happening, only served to confirm his belief. One day he passed by a cave that was filled with the Dark Side. It reached out and pulled him in, and the spirits of evil spoke to him there. _You will die here,_ they said, and he succumbed to the hatred and rage, but a woman had seen him enter the cave and followed him in despite the danger. She pulled him out, and said to him, 'Look, the sky is blue, the clouds are white, the grass is green. Breathe the air. You are safe, you are alive.' He looked, and the sky was blue, the clouds were white, the grass was green. He breathed the air. He was safe, he was alive, and as the Dark Side leeched away from him he realized that despite its imperfections, life was still truly beautiful. Having survived the blackest world of the galaxy, he now had something to compare to, and he looked at the woman who saved him and fell in love with her. From then on, it was as if he had died and had been returned to life, and no matter what he came across he could always find beauty in it. The most beautiful thing in the galaxy was still, of course, his wife, the woman who showed him how to see."

"How did he know the sky was blue and the grass was green?" Brianna asked unhelpfully, "Wasn't he blind like all Miraluka?"

In a rare gesture of playfulness, Visas elbowed Brianna in the ribs, earning a giggle. "I was translating it in a way you would understand. Of course, in the original language of my people, we describe it differently, but without living only through the Force, I know of no Basic synonym to translate the words exactly. In any case, Adel had gone to the cave of the Sith and is returned to us. It is possible that her experiences gave her the perspective needed to live again. The Dark Side is death and destruction, and she had gone to its core. That she came back is her resurrection, a pure kind untainted by hate and evil. Sometimes poisons are the best cures."

"I hope you're right," Mira listened. "Is it just me or is the rain easing a bit?"

There had been a mudslide when the four flew into the valley, though it seemed to have stopped. In case the rain jarred another vital rock, Mira threaded it as quickly as she could, flying over the rubble without really caring for the comfort of her passengers.

"I can't believe," Brianna gasped, "That I actually prefer Atton's flying over yours."

"He was actually a good pilot," Bao-Dur interjected.

"Mira is not," Visas said dryly.

"I'm sure you three would rather get buried in the mud," Mira gritted her teeth as they made their way up and out, "But forgive me if I do not agree."

"I'm sure we three also prefer not to crash into the cliff walls."

"Hear hear."

"We're out." Mira settled the speeder down, "If you three prefer to drive instead…" It was raining so hard again that two seconds in the rain would have gotten them soaked, so no one volunteered.

_Let's make Kreia fly. _Sometimes Adel showed her sense of humor at the most random moments. One of them was when she, Mira, Atton, and Kreia had flown on Dxun, and Mira had been complaining about Atton's piloting skills, and the two had been bickering for over ten minutes through a similar rainstorm. The idea of the old crone flying for them had been absurd not because people doubted Kreia's flying abilities, but because she looked nothing like a pilot, nor showed any interest in piloting. Kreia, a woman that unnerved even Mira's sensibilities, had smirked at this, fully knowing that Adel had uttered the words with the intention of inspiring discomfort in the other two.

Mira liked to say that while Adel was never evil, she was just a little bit wicked, enough to endear someone like Kreia to her.

Kreia was a creepy hag.

"There are a lot of hills ahead," Bao-Dur warned, his holomap turned on again, though he dimmed them so the light would not reflect off the windshield, "It will be a bit bumpy. The map suggests they're pretty steep."

"We are drawing away from them," Visas murmured, "They are not following us."

"The Sith?"

"Yes."

"That's good," Brianna looked out. She was sleepy.

Seeing her in the rearview mirror somehow reminded Mira of the time when she woke up in the middle of the night—or rather, the night the ship had set, since there was no day and night in space or hyperspace, and found Adel sitting in the mess hall, sewing. She was patching up Brianna's handmaiden robes, because Brianna had hurt her arm in a fight earlier and could not do it herself. There had been something very maternal about the sight, and Mira, feeling uncomfortable at how this had touched her, snapped at the Exile about the unForcely hour. Adel had simply shrugged, claimed she was not tired, and asked Mira if she needed anything mended.

Two weeks later, Mira gave her socks. Adel took them without comment and mended them artfully so that it looked like the holes were never there. It was truly bizarre that a fighter like Adel was so skilled at something like this. She never did it when others were awake, keeping her activities to the nighttime when everyone was asleep, though she did not go out of her way to hide what she was doing.

"You think Adel ever slept?" Mira asked Bao-Dur, after a long quiet descended.

"I know she had trouble sleeping," Bao-Dur replied. "I was hardly at the front lines during the Mandalorian wars, but even I had nightmares until she taught me the Force. I know she wandered the halls of the Enclave every night. One time I followed her and she looked in every room as if to make sure there were people there."

"This wasn't normal," Mira bit her lip. Even if Adel acted normally around them most of the time, there had been all these clues, between the random bursts of humor and wisdom, that all was not well. "Healthy, happy people don't go wandering the halls every night."

"I don't think," Bao-Dur said insightfully, "That any of us actually expected the General to ever truly be happy."

They were all silent after that.

The rain eased slightly when morning came. Mira's body was cramped from piloting, so she switched seats with Bao-Dur and reclined the chair over Brianna, who did not mind, in order to stretch.

"This is one huge cloud," She said to Bao-Dur, "Didn't think Dantooine had enough water for this; I'm surprised we're not flying over a flood."

"This storm is like a gift from the Force," Brianna murmured, "This entire time we were shielded from the Sith."

"The galaxy has its own measures against the evil from the unknown regions," Visas replied. "From what the Exile told me, she was called back from her exile through the Force."

"Atris had been sending out word for her return," Brianna looked at her, "And Kreia had been looking for her, not to mention the Sith."

"She did not know that until she already returned," Visas pointed out. "She could have simply kept disappearing too, rather confront those looking for her. She was within her rights to vanish from the known galaxy. She had deafened herself to the Force, and yet she still heard its summons when darkness threatened the galaxy once more. There was no physical reason for her to open her hearing to it again."

The grasslands were flat, which meant Bao-Dur simply had to drive straight. Daylight also lifted the sky to a dull gray, making it easier for him to see. Mira found herself wanting to whine about how he got the easier shift.

Two hours later, everyone was starving, so Bao-Dur parked near a cluster of rocks and everyone took out their rations. The rain made everyone long for something hot and brothy, but there was no such luxury in the landspeeder so they made do with cold sandwiches. In the distance a herd of piket longhorns huddled in the rain. Several brith were flying above, though they quickly descended to the ground.

"You know what just occurred to me?" Mira interrupted their breakfast silence to comment, "This is the first time all of us are together without Atton and Mical."

"So?" Brianna raised her eyebrows over her mouthful of food.

"Atton and Mical make _tons _of noise."

Visas laughed. "Those two." The Miraluka shook her head. "Bao-Dur was wise enough not to get involved himself. Did you also feel something for the Exile?"

To spare the Iridonian from having to reply, Mira cut in, "I think Adel had enough problems without Bao-Dur getting involved."

"I was actually of the same mind as Master Mical," Bao-Dur replied quietly. "Atton simply did not perceive me as a threat."

"You would have been a catch," Mira told him, slapping her hand on his shoulder, though careful not to jar his artificial arm. "Atton was jealous of Mical because of his hair. You're just unfortunate enough not to have any."

This caused everyone to laugh, even Bao-Dur.

"She's alive," Visas murmured when silence fell. "We don't know how she is, but she's alive."

"She's alive," Brianna agreed, grinning. "There is much we can do with that."

Bao-Dur started the engines, but his countenance was relaxed as well. He was just as pleased.

They flew for another few hours, Mira sleeping all the while. She woke in time for lunch. The sky had cleared and the sun beamed down. The Sith were a good distance away and the Force did not warn of their pursuit. The storm was still flooding Khoonda.

"Deesra will pitch a fit," Mira observed as they all left the speeder to stretch their legs and breathe some fresh air. "The Jedi won't be able to meditate out in the gardens, assuming the Enclave hasn't flooded by now."

"We needed the rain more than they needed the clear," Bao-Dur replied. "At this point, if we go to Agamar and the Sith don't follow us, we can skip the Yavin system and Telos and just head straight to Nar Shaddaa from Bandomeer."

"Not in this speeder," Brianna shook her head, "I don't fancy several days of being cramped in this hold. Despite the hyperspace capabilities, it's not built for such travel. We can either skip Yavin or Telos, but not both. Yavin moon bases sent a lot of reinforcements to Dantooine and Onderon, and if the Telosians don't offer up a ship, the Ithorians owe Adel for saving them, and they have many to spare for their reconstruction efforts. I would vote skipping Peragus though. Debris fields can disrupt a lot more than sensors, as enticing as it is to hide there."

"Peragus should be reserved as a last resort," Mira agreed, "It's as dangerous for us to cut through as it is for the Sith."

"Is it necessary for all four of us to go to Nar Shaddaa?" Visas asked.

"It's better that way," Brianna replied, "Especially since once we split up, we can't keep in contact with each other until we're certain the Sith are off all of our tails. Right now it's not a guarantee yet. If Coruscant does its job, there will be Jedi Knights coming to the mid and outer rims to handle the Sith. Our priority is to protect Adel, since if the Sith ever get their hands on her the galaxy is probably done for. We can do that better if we stick together."

They rushed into a settlement afterwards and refueled. Brianna took over flying for that night. As the darkness purged the sunlight, they flew into another storm, this one milder than the last. Brianna was not a good pilot, but the terrain was manageable, and she pushed the speeder to its limits to cover as much distance as possible. The pattern went on for several days until they covered enough distance to risk a launch into hyperspace. They materialized in Agamar, and jumped swiftly to Bandomeer, where they quickly dove into the planet's stratosphere in order to safely sense if they were being followed.

"Good," Said Visas, "The Sith did not detect our departure. They were not looking for any signs of hyperspace residues.

"In that case," Mira requested, "Can we risk a transmission to Coruscant? They'd probably have a better idea of where Mical is, at least. I want to know if Mical met up with Atton yet."

"Let's wait until we reach Telos," Said Brianna, "Or Yavin, whichever one is better. What do we want, Yavin or Telos?"

"I would go with Telos," Said Bao-Dur, "Something is telling me that planet might be better. The trip would only take two hours—the hyperspace vector is straight and clean, not winding like the trail from Dantooine to Onderon."

"I have no preference," Mira said.

"Telos it is then," Brianna nodded. Bao-Dur punched in the coordinates.

By the time they arrived on Telos, the ship was showing signs of wear. It could have lasted a few more hours in hyperspace before small issues might show, but everyone was glad they did not cut it so close. They landed at the docks, where they were greeted by several Ithorians.

'Masters Jedi,' Said one of them, the leader of this group, 'Welcome to Telos IV. Master Atris has been waiting for you.'

There was a long pause.

"You're kidding me," Mira blinked, "She's _here?_ What has Mical been doing? Shouldn't she be tossed in some jail tower or exiled?"

Brianna was so pale that her skin looked as white as a flimsy. Despite putting much of her past behind her, she had not been prepared to confront her old mistress so suddenly. Visas, sensing her anxiety, placed a gentle hand on her arm to remind her that she was with allies.

"Can you take us to her?" Bao-Dur asked, when no one else spoke.

'Of course,' The Ithorian bowed a little, 'Please, come this way. She will be very glad to see you; something urgent has happened.'

"What?" Mira demanded, "What happened?"

'You will see,' Their escort replied infuriatingly, and did not elaborate as they led them out of the bay area.


	24. Chapter 24

Return to Life

Chapter 24

Atton and Mical broke out of the headquarters with Force-enhanced haste, darting toward the ship hoping to get there in time before the planet started erupting in explosions, but the Sith apparently had other plans. As they turned in the tunnels, they sensed the Sith actually descend.

"Atton," Mical called in alarm, "The Force—"

Atton was fairly certain he was thinking the same thing, but before he could react, darkness spread from the invaders, an overpowering fog over their brains. It clung to him like slime, rage and hatred brewed together, and—

_The dark alleys of Nar Shaddaa melted away to reveal fire all around them, consuming the grasses that stretched for miles in all directions. Smoke billowed into the sky turned gray by the smog. The Exile stood next to him, dressed in black and dark red. She was beautiful in her darkness, deadly and dangerous, her eyes faintly yellow though her skin remained smooth like porcelain. When the wind blew, Atton could smell burning flesh, the odor so foul he would have vomited had he a weaker stomach._

_"Fools," Spat the Exile, "They think power is constrained to the physical form. A waste of breath to even kill them."_

_Atton felt a thrill of delight, as he hooked his thumb through his belt. "It would have been more satisfying if we had dragged it out. Slower makes it sweeter." He licked his lips in the heat. "So, Khoonda is no go. Where to now?"_

_"Eventually?" She raised an eyebrow, "Coruscant, but for now, I need something from Telos. That Jedi woman proved an embarrassment to those who wield the Dark Side, but she has her merits in the holocrons she stored. I want them. They doubtless contain ancient secrets, secrets that will be useful to me in the coming future."_

_She turned behind to face the Mandalorians, in particular Mandalore._

_"You will go to Onderon," She ordered, "Tell Vaklu to ready his ships. Bao-Dur, Mira, you two will accompany these men there. Disciple, you and Visas will go to Coruscant. Tell them that the Jedi Exile has perished on Malachor V. Remain there and keep me apprised of the Senate and its dealings. Brianna and Atton, you two will accompany me to Telos."_

_"Query: What about me, Master?" HK-47 interrupted. "Friendly reminder: I will be of most use in a situation that involves shooting as many meatbags as possible."_

_The smile on Adel's face would have been fond if there were any kindness in her at all. "HK, HK, HK," She walked up to him until they were face-to-face, "You really are a marvel, truly. Even if Revan had managed nothing else, he ought to be proud to have created you. You are, indeed, most useful for elimination." She paused, and then tilted her head in a wistful gesture, "But the more you kill, the less _I _can."_

_Quicker than the eye could see, she took out her lightsaber and slashed at the droid several times, so that all that remained were small chunks of metal. It was so abrupt that the Mandalorians were startled. Their armor clinked as they looked at each other in astonishment._

_"You like killing a bit too indiscriminately for my tastes," The Exile said to the rubble with an apologetic tone, "I have no need for an assassin droid who kills because of programming. Kreia is right; droids are offensive to the Force. I cannot maintain an ally who is not wise enough to fear me, and alas, for all your ingenious design, you are not wise enough to be a proper servant." She turned then to take Atton's chin lightly in her fingers, her touch heated and filled with sexual energy even though she grasped him gently. "Not like my Jaq. You know what you are, don't you?"_

_"Yes," Atton whispered._

_"What are you, my sweet?"_

_"I am your servant."_

_She smiled an oily smile, before suddenly pressing her lips to his, her tongue snaking in forcefully to stake her claim—_

There was a bright puff, and all of the sudden everything was a myriad of colors and images and sounds, different voices and different noises mingling together into a cacophony. He felt a distant pain, aching, sickness, and the different lights and colors and flashes made him horrendously dizzy. Everything snapped momentarily to a coherent image—_Adel's hair was loose and she was dressed scantily enough to make even Mira blush. She was running her fingers up a human man's bare torso, smiling coyly at him with dark purpose. Despite knowing she was only using him, Atton felt a surge of powerful jealousy, hateful and furious, both because he hated the man for capturing her attention and because he knew that to her, Atton was the same: a toy to play with and discarded at will—_The image melted back into flashing lights, but this time Atton was shaken enough to realize that this was very familiar…it looked like the first time he had peered into Adel's mind when he was taking her from Dxun to Onderon.

_Adel?_ He stretched his mind out despite the dizziness, and found her much more easily than he had anticipated he would. Her presence latched onto him in a tight grip, and as she did so, he felt her pain elevate. It was sheer agony—no wonder she had been crying when this started. It felt like her very blood was boiling in her veins, under her skin, in her bones, but at the moment she was trying very hard not to be distracted by the torment of her body because…because she was trying to protect him from the Sith!

_Adel!_ Atton called out, and inanely, asked, _What's happening?_

He received a series of confused symbols in reply. Adel had no idea what was going on either. He could sense she was simply reacting to the danger he and Mical were facing, taking advantage of their Force bonds to exert her cleansing influence. His mind flickered to clarity for a moment and he was in the tunnel on Nar Shaddaa, but Adel's focus was poor, and he was drawn back into the color of her scattered mind, then further into another vision—_Adel was looming over a prone Mira, whose body was twitching in spasms not unlike those resulting from a long torture session. Atton stood behind her as always, as did Visas and Bao-Dur, who watched the scene as indifferently as the Exile herself.  
_

_"Where are they, Mira?" Adel demanded with that cold voice that never failed to send shudders down Atton's spine. Darth Revan was nothing compared to Adel. She was a beautiful manifestation of the Dark Side. Rather than brute strength and power, she was refined hate and fury, possessing a dark wisdom that made her infinitely more terrible than any Sith Lord before her. Without warning, lightning arched from her fingertips, and Mira screamed, body thrashing in throes of torment. Adel lowered her arm. "Answer me and all this will go away."_

_"I hope you _rot_, Exile," Mira gritted her teeth. "I will _never _reveal their positions to you! You're a monster through and through!"_

_Adel smiled softly. "Very well. I shall honor your choice."_

_Lightning flickered sharp and bright. Mira screamed again, but this time Adel did not release her, maintaining the flashes of electricity until the former bounty hunter's skin bubbled and turned black. Still she went on, charging the Force lightning, and the smell of charred flesh reached Atton's nostrils—ah, did that remind him of his finer days as an assassin!_

With a violence that left his head pounding, Adel drew him from the vision. She was concentrating so hard to reach him through the bond that he could see her glowing form, ghostly and faint in the tunnel. Her mental hold was tenuous, so he latched on with more Force as she gave way, but they were now connected as long as he did not let go of her. Next to him, Mical was crumpled on the floor, unconscious.

Adel remained in front of him, her immaterial figure wavering and blurry. Her eyes were shut tight and he could feel her sickness. She was in danger of losing consciousness, and she would not be able to bring Mical out the way she brought Atton. The Sith were nearby, their powers absurdly far-reaching.

They had to get off planet.

He bent down and heaved the other man over his shoulder, cursing at the dead weight—it really felt like Mical was dead, for even a comatose person would automatically align himself when manhandled, thus making it easier. There was not much Force to fuel him; everything was overflowing with the Dark Side. Adel grew more and more desperate—she was no longer trying to rouse Mical. Atton's mental grip was already nearly too much for her to handle, and pain leeched through their bond despite the distance, nearly crippling him despite his uninjured state. He had the additional difficulty of having to mask his presence and sneak around the mercenaries that were fleeing from the docks. There was no time for battle and no time for talking. As seconds ticked by, Adel's hold on reality grew weaker, so that the dark visions began to invade reality. He hurried down one ally as next to him, the grasses of the surface of Telos erupted into flame. The real Adel had disappeared, but Dark Adel was standing on a high platform, Mandalorians spread out beneath her. She ignited her lightsaber and pointed toward the settlements, and the Mandalorians rushed into battle with a dull, echoing roar. The docks looked superimposed over Iziz's marketplace, where Queen Talia's hung body remained suspended for all citizens to see, a noose around her limp neck and a decaying dress flowed forlornly in the wind.

_This is the freakiest thing I have ever seen,_ Atton thought wildly, resisting the urge to stop and stare. A hanging? What kind of primitive method of execution was that? In his distraction, he nearly wandered right into open view of the docks, where some of the Sith waited by a sleek, ominous-looking ship. There was a reason why they were called Red Sith, he realized. They were humanoid, with red skin, clad in deep black, but among them was a single human, with white hair and yellow eyes.

Adel began actively yanking on her end of the bond—she was at the last of her endurance. He let her go in the hopes that she would return quickly, and was abruptly overwhelmed by the dark visions again.

_"No," Brianna went into a combat stance, eyes shining in alarm. Adel's cloak swept around her like a shadow. Her arms were folded in front of her. "No, I was always loyal to you. I have never betrayed you! I did it all for you!"_

_Atton knew Adel wanted him to fight her, to kill her. He stepped forward as the Exile spoke._

_"Not everything is about you, my dear Echani sister. I know you were loyal to me, that you have never betrayed me. That is why you are still alive. However, someone like me, with my power, is entitled to sacrifice a few for the benefit of many, and unfortunately, your usefulness is at an end."_

_"No!" Brianna's face contorted, "You fiend! I killed my sisters for you! I fought alongside you to bring down that hag and her lackey!"_

_"While I will concede that you played a part in killing your own sisters, you did not fight alongside me. In fact, it was mostly Atton who killed your sisters. Not that it's much of a sacrifice on your part; you've never been too close to them, have you, hm? If you wish to know where you went wrong, I will indulge you this: you mistakenly believe that I would be grateful for your past contributions to overlook a slack in present performance. You thought loyalty would make up for ineptitude. The ways of the Sith, however, do not condone uselessness and wastefulness. It would be a waste of my time and energy to keep you by my side, and I cannot have you running to warn the Republic once I get rid of you, so I cannot let you go. The only course of action is death, and," Adel smiled, her yellow eyes gleaming, "I shall milk one more contribution from you. You will give Atton the practice he needs to warm up and recall his talents of the past. While you are lost in the throes of agony…know that your pain will not be for naught."_

_"You _witch!_"_

_But Atton took his cue and lunged forward, red lightsaber swinging in a quick arc. Brianna dodged, possessing no weapons of her own, and she brought her Echani training to play, dodging, aiming for him when he was vulnerable, but Atton had progressed far more under Adel's tutelage than he ever had during the Mandalorian wars, and his blood sang with the song of battle, the taste of that sweet torture session almost at the tip of his tongue._

Reality warped into being so quickly that for a moment Atton suffered severe vertigo. Adel had a hold on him again, but her grip was weakening faster than the first time and she could hardly bear the strain. He sat up and was on his feet despite feeling like his stomach was about to empty its contents in an explosive splatter of bile and acid. Head to the ship. Punch in coordinates. Use Force wave to hopefully knock the Sith back. Get out of Nar Shaddaa. If he wanted to make it to his ship in time—the Sith would definitely spot him and would probably give chase, but he could use Force haste and go into the ship before they could react—he would have to draw upon the Dark Side, just like in the visions.

What would happen then?

Adel. Adel had a hold on him, one that was quickly slipping, but perhaps it would be enough for him to draw on the Dark Side without losing his mind. There was no time to second-guess himself; there was no way they would make it off Nar Shaddaa if he kept succumbing to the influence of the Sith. With a heave, Mical was over his shoulder again, and the Dark Side, oily and restless, flooded into his blood. Profound rage, cold and ruthless, simmered in his core as he dove toward their ship. Adel's hold grew tighter as she sensed this. _Jaq?_ She inquired plaintively.

Happily, Atton's mind seemed to remain separate from his rage. He dumped Mical unceremoniously in the cockpit before flicking the controls. The Sith were hesitating because they were not sure what they saw, but he saw them starting to move his way, though not with Force haste. Adel began yanking on her end again, but now was too precarious to let her go and succumb once more. He punched in the coordinates as he steered, hoping that the numbers were correct because there was no way he could double-check. They blasted up into the stratosphere.

Out from the smog, the stars of the galaxy blanketed out before him in sparkling glitter. He plunged out of the planet's gravitational pull and slammed the hyperspace thruster. Mical's body crashed into the back of the cockpit as they entered hyperspace and the Dark Side drained away as quickly as thought. Adel gave one final mental yank, and Atton let her go. Her presence in his mind went completely dead; she had used up the last of her reserves.

It did not matter, however. They were free, for now. Atton sagged in his seat, hair soaked with sweat. That was too close. He let out a sigh and looked at his navicomputer.

Mical groaned.

Atton wiped his face with one hand, then froze when he saw where they were headed. He had punched in the coordinates correctly, true, but they were heading to Telos, which meant if the Sith picked up their hyperspace trail, Atton was leading them straight to Adel.

"Sith," He swore as the other Jedi struggled to his feet. "Kreth. I am a krething—_Sith!_"


	25. Chapter 25

Return to Life

Chapter 25

Atton, frantic, looked through the navicomputer and tried to come up with some way to hack the ship in order to bring it to a stop before Telos. Mical, somehow calmer about the situation, took Atton's computer chip and chose to play Brianna's message. It was audio-only, so Atton listened as he looked.

_"Atton, this is Brianna. I finished translating the words. It reads head, side, side, and foot, so it goes like this: 'Born of the Force, the Force birthed here/Like stars her power stretches from herself to shadow's end, in darkness brightest, in light joy, mother, sister, daughter, lover(—I'll explain that part later)/To glory will we ascend from her life after death, pain will awaken that which strengthens all, sorrow directs power, that we shall harvest for our empire and reclaim our majesty through/Here lies the Daughter of Stars; the White Maiden lies here. ' _

_"Mother, sister, daughter, lover goes like this: Mother gives birth, sister shares, daughter submits, lover sacrifices. I know it sounds weird, but this is Sith culture and I'm not going to justify anything in it. In any case, the idea is that the Daughter of Stars is mother, sister, daughter, and lover to the Sith, because she gave them the spark, shares her power, submits to their will, and sacrifices for them. The next part I'll have to explain with T3—you have this really awesome padawan at the Enclave you never told us about, she is absolutely sick at droids and recovering things, and we found more stuff in his memory core; the Sith keeps injecting stuff into Adel, if you remember—I forget if you were here for that, but the stuff are all hallucinogens, with an added spice from the Unknown Regions that turns them into the most horrifying visions ever. The reason they do this is because Adel has developed the ability to naturally absorb more Force energy when she's scared or in pain. The Sith intend to use her as a reservoir to tap strength from, and they want to take over the galaxy by using her as a sort of battle meditator, except she's not conscious. They didn't need her to be, and she couldn't be anyway, because her mind was literally flooded with the Force. From the recorded conversations between Revan and this Jedi—I think it was the Jedi that crash-landed here with her, the Sith cut off her ability to cut herself off from the Force, so that she can't protect herself from this. They don't even need her sane, really, she could just be catatonic and that would serve their purposes; I think you figured that part out by now."_

Atton glanced at Mical. If Adel naturally drew the Force to her when in pain, would that draw the attention of the Sith as well?

_"Now, several things: Adel apparently met up with Revan and shortly afterwards she tried to infiltrate the Sith. The first time she didn't actually go in; there was a Sith acolyte and she engaged him in battle but spared his life afterwards because he was a human child. She felt very bad for him, so she brought him back to Revan. Somehow he switched sides—he's that Jedi that crash-landed_—_I guess it's not that accurate to actually call him a Jedi, but in any case, afterwards she infiltrated, and couldn't get back out. Revan was not able to go himself because he is vulnerable to the Sith, so he sent the acolyte after her with a bit of Adel's blood so he could open the coffin. The problem is that the drugs the Sith injected Adel did a number on her body—the acolyte couldn't move her from the coffin without killing her, because it did something…I think he was afraid her body would rot and fall to pieces if it left the coffin."_

"Sith," Atton grabbed the controls to calm himself.

_"So the acolyte went back out. He wasn't detected by the Sith, so he and Revan planned to get the coffin out along with Adel. They had T3 steal some samples of the drug in order to find an antidote, and figured out that there was this kind of flowering plant that would negate its effects, and it was very potent. This plant only grew in the Unknown Regions, so Revan found a collection of them and intended to put them in the coffin so they could negate enough effects that by the time they could take the body out, she wouldn't fall apart. He wanted to send Adel back to the Republic with the flowers so that scientists could reverse-clone the flowers in order to heal her. That's only for her body, however." _There was a pause. _"Her mind is another matter. She can't shield herself anymore—or rather, she can, but she can't shield herself from the Force, and that's what's going to drive her catatonic. We all filter the information the Force brings to us, it's as natural as blocking out white noise, but she can't do that anymore because the Sith took that from her. Someone needs to do it for her. For the rest of her life."_

Mical looked at Atton.

_"If she's already out of the coffin, Atton, for some reason, the flowers probably healed her enough that she would be okay for a while, but the effects will wear off and her body would ravage itself. You need to hurry and clone the flowers as soon as possible. They need about two weeks at the quickest, so you better hurry. Kolto could slow it down considerably, but you should still try to clone the flowers if you can stay in one place long enough. You're also the best at shielding, better than any of us, because you've ignored the Force before so you can hopefully block it for her. If you're not on Nar Shaddaa now, I know you will get there at some point. May the Force be with you."_

Silence fell.

"She's strong," Mical said after a while, "She'll make it."

Atton was tempted to snap at him; his unwavering faith in Adel's strength was irritating, but at this point, there was nothing else for them, or for her. At the moment, Adel was unconscious. He felt along the Force bond to her and noted that it was still awfully silent. Not empty—empty would mean dead, but just very still.

"How does one block another from the Force?" Atton asked Mical.

"Master and padawan bonds can help," Said Mical, "But they would have to be very strong, and very exclusive. Adel has trained all of us at once, so while none of our bonds are weak, they aren't as potent as would be necessary." He hesitated. "Another bond is that between lovers. That is less well-documented, for obvious reasons, but there were cases of Force sickness in one spouse, and the other uses the bond to block the Force in order to preserve his or her mate. Then there are drugs, that block the Force, technologies as well, but those tend to have side-effects."

Atton was familiar with those. "No," He shook his head, trying to discard the images of his assassin past, the number of Jedi he captured and tortured. He would not do such a thing to Adel. He wanted her to have a little bit of the Force, as much as she would like without going mad—not be bereft completely, unless she chose that, but he remembered how she glowed when the Force returned to her, even if it dimmed over the months and years. The Force made her whole. Without it, she was incomplete.

"There's six of us," Atton counted, "Seven if you count Atris. Maybe if we pool our stuff together, we can block her despite not having any bonds."

"Not likely," Mical pointed out, "Brianna said for the rest of her life." He paused. "We have other priorities. At the very least, Visas cannot block at all; she would not know how to, being a Miraluka and requiring the Force to perceive the world around her, and Bao-Dur's skills are rather miserable. I cannot leave the Order for Adel's sake."

"Why not?" Atton scowled. "What's so great about the precious Order? We have the numbers. We can retire."

"I'm a historian, Atton," Mical said wearily, "If I leave, the Order loses its heart."

"There are other historians. Deesra's one."

"Not so many that I can afford to step down." Mical turned away. "We're not all as lucky as you are, Atton."

Right. Because Atton was just full of luck.

"Maybe Atris received warning in the Force," Said the Jedi, rising out of his seat to pace. In the distance of hyperspace, he could sense the Dark Side looming, the edges of the black visions creeping just out of reach. "Yes? No? We can't send transmissions in hyperspace."

"Maybe the Sith already sense her on Telos," Said Mical dryly, "Since her _pain draws the Force to her_. At this point, Atton, I think we will have to simply hope that the Force is with us in this regard."

He was calm, with that Jedi serenity when faced with the inevitable, or something they could not help. Atton wondered what Mical saw from the Sith.

"I saw Adel if she chose the Dark Side," He volunteered. "She killed Mira, Brianna…tortured and liked it. The scary thing is we all loved her even then. I use to think that it was her light that made her so beautiful, but even when she was dark…we all loved her, even as she cut us down. It was…kreth, but it was unnerving because of how true that feels."

Mical folded his hands, not speaking for a moment. When he did, it was in neutral, almost dead tones.

"I gave up. I gave up everything I knew. I became Chancellor of the Republic at some point and…her darkness tore all hope from me. Like watching dreams shatter before one's eyes. I gave up on the Jedi, and crushed the remains of the Order." He looked at Atton. "That omnipresent rage…how do the Sith stand it?"

He _would _ask Atton, the former Sith-assassin thought in exasperation.

"It's all there is," He answered anyway, "Fear and anger, and anger helps pride more. When nothing else is left, you don't think of rage as a negative emotion anymore. Not when it's the only thing keeping you alive. And the Sith are really terrified of death, as much as they love to hand it out wherever they go. They kill so they wouldn't be killed and it terrifies them how easily others die. They think of anger as the only thing keeping them from following where others went. What sets them apart. Peace is complacency, which leads to death."

"True enough," Mical nodded. "I remember feeling that way. In the vision, sometimes I longed for the days when I was still a youngling, and Adel still a padawan, but I didn't know how to reclaim that feeling. I didn't think I could. When I woke up here…I was so relieved." He shook his head self-deprecatingly. "How does one combat a force like that? The galaxy is done for. Perhaps Adel needs to come back once again."

Atton was tempted to snap at him, but the blonde Jedi did not seem thrilled with this idea.

"Adel is mortal too. It's not like she can step in to save the galaxy all the time. She's going to die and then at some point in the future after she's dead, the galaxy will need saving again. It has to save itself at some point."

"Mm."

Atton spent the next few hours trying to reach Telos with his mind, but Adel remained unconscious and his unusual bond with her did not extend to Atris. It was probably better that they go to Adel, he had to admit. The visions were completely crippling, and she was the only one who could purge it. It was possible that simply keeping the Sith away was not the answer. Maybe they had to face the Sith. Maybe…

Maybe they could use her reservoir attributes for themselves.

Mical sat meditating, like he always did. Atton considered him, thinking quickly. Adel was _not _catatonic, and despite what Brianna said, she was not mad either. She had coherent thought now, probably due to sheer stubbornness. Their merry group had always been able to draw on her strength for support, in fact her departure had left a gaping hole in the Force as well as in their hearts—or perhaps the two were not so different and separate. Either way, sharing powers, boosting, healing, assisting, they have all done this before. In fact, despite not really knowing what he was doing, Atton had pulled on Adel just on Nar Shaddaa to keep himself intact, even when she had been past her ability to cope with the stress. His grip had been solid, even if hers was not, and her agony had not diminished the effects.

If she really was so powerful, they could use her to push the Sith back. It was just the matter of getting her well enough to stand it. In fact, they could just stuff Adel somewhere and draw upon her remotely.

_Like how the Sith stuffed her in a coffin._

Could they draw upon her despite her unconsciousness? Brianna had mentioned that the Sith certainly did not care about that, and the Sith did not forge bonds of friendship with her, familial bonds constructed from toil and suffering and mutual comfort. Love could strengthen bonds, Atton knew, even if Adel never confirmed.

_But the Force is hurting her now._

It would not be the first time Atton had hurt Adel in order to protect her. And if she was unconscious…he stretched out over the bond again, but there was still nothing, and her signature did not rouse when he tried to draw her into his mental grip. The last time she had extended her powers to him and he took it, but now he had no idea how to latch on to her.

_"_Mical," Atton poked the other, rousing him rudely from his trance, "Adel is the key."

Mical simply looked at him.

"We can use her against them just as they've been using her."

The other was still silent.

"On Telos, we can confront the Sith," Atton suggested, "Or try to. Brianna said she doesn't have to be conscious, and she actually has bonds with us. It can't be harder for us to draw on her than it was for the Sith. Besides, we'd be going on a merry run throughout the galaxy, and succumb to visions every time they come too close. But we need to figure out how to grab her. Do you know any tricks, oh venerable historian?"

"That's a dark side tactic," Mical sounded exasperated, "The Sith would at least attempt such a thing. Stealing other people's Force powers is just the kind of trick a Sith Lord would use to make himself or herself stronger."

Atton glared, but Mical went on,

"I know, you're trying to do this for benevolent reasons, but it doesn't change the fact that it's fundamentally different from when another person offers her strength to you."

"We draw on each other's strength without asking all the time."

"We ask, and we respond, all instinctively, all the time," Mical corrected, "This is different, and the Jedi would not practice such a thing. Battle meditation, boosting, that is one thing. Taking without consent is another. If the Sith figured out how to do this, Atris would know, but I would not."

Atton looked away. "Right now Adel is the only hope we have."

"Atris studied Sith holocrons. You were able to get Adel away when the Sith attacked Dantooine. From their behavior on Nar Shaddaa, I think they realized Adel is out of the coffin." This sounded like something Mical figured out through his meditation. "They won't jeopardize her by bombing Telos the way they did Dantooine and Onderon."

"We don't want them _on _Telos either. The Ithorians are engineering the plant."

"They don't know that."

Atton frowned. "How much do you think they're getting from Adel right now?" He asked, referring to the Sith. They were drawing on Adel all these years, after all.

"She was protecting herself," Mical reminded him, "She taught you and Atris how to protect yourselves."

"She's unconscious right now."

"But Atris is with her, and Atris knows how to shield her."

Atton fisted his forehead.

"It'll be five days since the Ithorians began their clone. It is possible to use the Force to make things grow faster. They lose a bit of their potency, but potency isn't what we're looking for necessarily. I can get a few to accelerate, reduce a few days—the Sith have to wander around and search, after all, and we can run distraction and lead them everywhere else until the plants are ready. Then we feed them to Adel, however it is supposed to work, and go from there."

Atton nodded to this. "Good idea."

He slept later, dreaming he was watching Adel dance in a white gown in a place that looked like the grasslands of Naboo, with streaming waterfalls that cast rainbows in the spray. She was grace and power rolled into one, the grass around her rippling with each motion. The Force swirled around her like ribbons, moving at her will, but also directing her, spinning her like a dancing partner. Her face was hidden in a semi-translucent veil, though her eyes were intensely outlined behind it, long lashes flickering as she turned her face to the side.

In the past, when he had this dream, he was an immaterial observer, intangible, only a perception. This time, he could feel his body move as he went toward her, still dancing as if oblivious to his presence. He held out his hands and gently gripped her waist as she lifted her arms, and she suddenly froze.

The vision around him shattered into a million pieces and became fragments of light and color, the song of the Force a loud cacaphonic roar. Her waist was the only thing solid under his hands, so he pulled her to him, and Adel materialized out of the maelstrom, shuddering, frightened, the Force bond between them straight and taut. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, and he held on to her just as tightly, dipping his head over hers and covering as much of her slender form as he could with his arms. The roar became muted, still loud but muffled, as if a wall had been placed around them.

_"Not good enough," _Adel said quietly, _"But it's better than it had been for a long time." _She sounded like herself. Atton cupped the back of her head.

_"Sorry," _Atton whispered, _"I'll work on it. Hang in there."_

_"I don't have much time."_

_"I'm coming for you." _He remembered the dream they both had, of coming up with names for the baby. _"You will survive this."_

For a long time they stood together as their world spun, dizzying and wild.

_"Why did you leave, Adel?"_

_"I couldn't stay. It hurt, everywhere," _She paused, _"But it hurt worse there. I wish I let you hold me like this before. I wouldn't have left."_

He tightened his embrace at this, thoughts whirling in his head. She did not feel warm—this was not her real body, after all, but she was nonetheless in his arms, and he was sheltering a vital part of her from the chaos around them.

_"It's fine," _He said quietly, _"There is time. You are back and alive. We will get you better and I will always hold you like this."_

She tilted her head up to look at him. _"I'd like that," _She smiled.

Overcome, he pressed his forehead against hers.

He woke with tears in his eyes. Mical stared at him from the co-pilot seat.

"What are you staring at?" He snapped, wiping at his eyes in frustrated embarrassment. _Force, of all people, in front of _blondie_!_

"I wasn't going to say anything," Mical said flatly, "But you were whimpering." He looked away.

Atton cursed. _Son of a schutta!_


	26. Chapter 26

Return to Life

Chapter 26

Visas paced in front of the kolto tank where the Exile, clad only in her underwear, floated in sleep. Her limbs jerked in phantom pains even though she did not consciously feel them.

"To his credit," Atris pointed out, "Master Mical sent the flowers to the Ithorians at the first opportunity."

"There was a way to accelerate the process." Brianna glared at her former mistress. "You were a historian. You should know the technique."

"I know _of _it," Atris replied patiently, "But not all Jedi are equally well-versed in all things."

"Of course," Said the former handmaiden, "You are very well-versed in Sith things. You lived in the middle of ice and snow. Hardly a spot conducive to growing plants."

"How long will the kolto extend?" Bao-Dur asked Brianna.

"How should I know? I saw the recording just as you all did. It's up to the Force now, and the Exile."

"If we had known Atton brought Adel here," The Miraluka continued to pace, "We would not have bothered sending him to Nar Shaddaa."

Brianna was still glaring at Atris. She had regained her composure soon after hearing her former mistress was here, but old wounds still hurt, it seemed, and she had yet to let up on the hot gaze. Atris, for her part, seemed unusually tolerant of everyone, despite their numerous subtle insults and gestures of mistrust.

"There is a reason he had to go to Nar Shaddaa," Said the older woman, "Or at least depart from Telos. Whatever sickness is taking the Ex—Adel, has slowed considerably with the kolto tank. With her around, you lot seem perfectly capable of finding each other, or at least rendezvousing at the same places, so I would not worry about missing him. When the time comes, if the flowers are ready before Master Rand and Mical return, we should leave Telos to head to Coruscant."

Mira tapped the armrest of her chair. "Do we want to subject Adel to Bastila?"

"There's no telling what that woman would do."

"She certainly won't harm Adel," Visas said softly, "But I doubt she would be patient enough with her."

"The two of them both knew Revan. There's got to be some camaraderie between them."

"Are you kidding?" Mira glared at Atris. "Bastila hates Adel's guts. Even if Revan use to go bump with her in the night before he went to the unknown regions—Adel was the one that rose above all of them back in the Mandalorian wars and came back untainted. Shan could release her jealousy into the Force all she wants, it doesn't mean anything. And now Adel has come back, without her precious Revan. I personally vote for someone standing guard over her during her recovery in Coruscant. I don't care how much of a Jedi Bastila's supposed to be—a Jedi might not harbor ill-will, but we are definitely allowed to harbor skepticism."

"It sounds to me like you do not get along with her yourself," Atris observed.

"None of us do," Bao-Dur explained. "Only Mical was able to stand her. She never liked us, and we never liked her. You should know, Atris, how little liking someone matters among Jedi. So long as we could work together to get things done, our feelings are irrelevant."

Visas finally stopped her pacing to sit down.

A spurt of red puffed in front of Adel's face. Her nose had started bleeding shortly after they put her in the kolto tank. There was nothing they could do that the kolto was not already doing, though under normal circumstances, a person should not still have open wounds after seven hours of immersion due to the chemicals in the solution.

"At some point we're going to have to do a blood transfusion," Said Bao-Dur, glancing at the monitors to check her blood pressure and heart rate, "I don't think she's making enough new blood to replace the amount she's consistently losing."

"Does anyone know what type of blood she has?" Brianna asked.

"I think the temples have records," Said Mira. "We can comm Deesra."

"Best not," Brianna shook her head, "The Sith were still hanging around in orbit. We don't want a transmission to go through them."

"We can contact Coruscant, then." Mira gestured at Brianna, knowing that the fair-haired woman would like nothing more than to get away from her former mistress. "I need you to restrain me if I come face-to-face with Bastila."

"Why must I do the restraining?" Brianna was put out.

As it happened, Bastila was the one who answered the transmission.

"We need to get some padawans as secretaries," Mira said in annoyance, "I thought you had better things to do than monitor incoming transmissions."

_"I happen to be waiting for word from Master Mical. What do you want, Mira? You better make this quick."_

"That's rich," Mira gritted her teeth, "I need Adel's medical records forwarded to the Telos Citadel medical bay. Telos IV."

There was a beep, signaling that Bastila was actually doing what was requested without haggling for details first—a welcome relief. _"What's wrong?"_

"It's none of your business."

"Adel is bleeding," Said Brianna, "Kolto isn't sealing her wounds. We're waiting on the cure but we want the data in case she needs a transfusion before it's ready."

_"What happened?"_

Bastila was sounding subdued enough that even Mira's ire, ever ready to lash out at the other woman, had cooled enough for her to humor the question.

"She started bleeding shortly after succumbing to the fit, once we put her in the kolto tank. It's not heavy bleeding, but it's significant enough to have us worried. So far she's unconscious; she exerted some strong Force will outwards, possibly to Atton and Mical, and it exhausted her mental faculties."

_"I'm sending the files to you now," _Bastila reported, just as Mira received a message on the terminal requesting a file transfer. _"Has she said anything…about her time in the unknown regions…?"_

"Figures that she'd be concerned about what she knew about Revan," Brianna muttered.

"Sorry, honey," Mira quipped, "By the time we arrived all she was doing was—" She had been about to say that Adel was crying, but then decided that Bastila hardly needed to know that. "—Being sick and in pain. Wouldn't be able to relate any news of your loverboy even if she wanted to."

Brianna looked at her, silently wondering if they should tell Bastila about what they saw from T3's memory core. Mira had little to no sympathy for Bastila, but she still felt obligated to let the wretched woman know what they knew.

"We were able to figure out what he was up to before Adel got shipped here though. Revan was alive, as far as we know. No reason he is dead yet, unless he rushed at the Sith himself." The silence on the other side was almost deafening, despite the intermittent cracks of static. "He sent Adel in to the Sith by herself. Most of the recording consists of Revan and this redeemed human Sith trying to figure out ways to get Adel out."

_"Recording?" _Bastila sounded choked. _"There's a recording?"_

Mira looked at Brianna. "Did we bring the file chip with us?"

"I think Bao-Dur did. I'll check with him."

"If we have it on us we'll forward it to you; give us a sec."

There was another pause on the other side.

_"Th-thank you,"_ Bastila managed, sounding oddly tearful.

_Right, _Mira thought wryly, _Thank us now. It's not like our news is the most up to date._

Brianna returned shortly afterwards, bearing the file chip. Sending a copy to Coruscant ended up slowing both transmissions. Mira glared at the progress bar representing Adel's file. At last there was a beep, signaling the transfer was complete. T3M4's recording was still transferring when Mira opened Adel's file and looked through the documents.

"What's that mark up there?" Brianna asked, pointing at a dot next to Adel's seemingly normal blood type. "Is there a legend below?"

_That legend better say something like "perfectly healthy person" or something, _Mira thought as she scrolled down to find one. She was not sure what they were going to do if it offered bad news instead. Maybe start breaking things, or something equally un-Jedi. One of the things she shared with Atton was their mutual desire to baffle the old members of the Order by acting against decorum.

They found the legend.

"'Can only accept blood of Force-sensitive humans.'" Mira read. "Well that's not stingy at all. Good grief, Adel, you're pretty picky about your donors."

_"Oh yes,"_ Said Bastila, appearing to stare at something offscreen, _"There was an incident where she got very sick, but didn't have the sense to stop training. It was with Revan, I think, and he cut open an artery. She lost a lot of blood, and they used a non-sensitive donor—I forget why, actually. She had a violent anaphylactic reaction and nearly died. Only Force-sensitives allowed, unless you wish to kill her, but there are easier ways of doing that."_

"No doubt," Mira bit out. Sometimes she was not certain if Bastila did not want Adel dead herself. _Revan sounds like a downright jerk. _"Well that's something. Between the five of us, including Atris, her blood type's not the best but not the worst. What do we have?"

"I'm fairly certain I don't have her blood type. Bao-Dur would have it on record, as would Atris, but you and Atton both refused to get tested."

"No reason to put it in the database," Said Mira, knowing that her bounty-hunter origins were manifesting themselves in this, "Not unless I really need a donor, for some reason, but I saw no need to hurry that part. I can get tested for her sake, though, if no one else can contribute. Shan, is the file transfer freaking done yet? It's finished on my end."

Bastila frowned a little as she checked. _"Yes, it is."_

"Good. Bye." Mira shut the connection. She knew it was rude, but she really had no affection for Bastila Shan. "Let's go talk to the others."

Visas looked relieved when she learned that she would not be a good candidate for donation, which made Mira wonder if there was something about Miraluka culture that made such a thing taboo somehow. They learned that none of the ones who knew their blood type were good candidates either, which left Mira with the unhappy solution of getting herself tested.

"If it makes you feel better," Brianna said to Mira as she tested the sample, "I won't log this in our database."

"That does make me feel better."

"You're also not compatible with Adel."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"Mical is."

It figured.

"How come human men—" since Bao-Dur was also a man, "Are never around when you need them? Force!"

"We can, perhaps, find some Force-sensitive volunteers," Visas pointed out quietly, "After all, recruitment has not been so complete that all Force-sensitives came to the Order. There is bound to be some on Telos, and hopefully one of them has Adel's blood type."

"We can hope. It beats sitting here watching her float." Mira scowled as another faint puff of red puffed in front of Adel's face. "_Where _is she bleeding? It better not be from her brain!"

"Why, exactly, did Mical go to Nar Shaddaa and not you?" Brianna demanded of her former mistress.

"Because Adel was conscious when they left and needed my help to use the refresher," Atris said neutrally. "Both Atton and Mical felt that she deserved to keep some of her dignity intact."

"How generous," Brianna sneered.

Mira was all for verbally lashing at Atris, but the problem at hand was a bit too distressing for such an indulgence. "So, should we follow after them to Nar Shaddaa and try to get them back?"

"No," Said Atris, frowning. "The Sith." She was tense, her gaze distant as she focused on the remote parts of the galaxy.

Visas froze. "They are coming. As are Atton and Mical."

"What?"

"I just realized something," Bao-Dur stared at the tank, "Her respiratory passage is the only part of her not soaked in kolto."

"No kidding, genius!"

"We need kolto vapor."

"Everyone, please," Atris interrupted, "We have to focus. The Sith are coming to Telos."

"Well we better get Adel out of here!"

"They're coming with Masters Rand and Mical," Atris pointed out, "If Adel leaves, they would be exposed to the Sith's dark influence. Adel is the only one who can purge us of the visions. We need Master Rand's shielding abilities, at the very least. We cannot abandon them."

Mira cursed.

"What if we take some of her blood? Would that help purge the visions?" Bao-Dur asked.

"I doubt it," Said Atris, "And it's not something I would risk failing. Adel's cleansing power comes from her spirit, not from her physical body."

Mira cursed again.

"What would Adel do?" Visas asked.

From everyone's expressions, save Atris, they were all thinking the same thing.

_I don't ask any of you to die for this. Your first priority is to stay alive._

"Like hell," Said Mira, "Adel's not a good model. She'd make us all leave and face the Sith herself. The ditz."

"We can't face the Sith without her, and we can't risk them taking her," Brianna frowned, "And it is possible that Atton and Mical are on their way here due to the Sith's influence. We may have to fight the two of them as well."

"I know," Bao-Dur suddenly said, "Droids."

"Droids? Against the Sith?"

"They are free from Sith influence, or Sith detection," The Iridonian pointed out, "And if you remember, T3M4 was able to infiltrate the Sith base and speak to Adel without ever being uncovered. It's a few days of hyperspace travel between Nar Shaddaa and Telos, so we have time to _give Adel some kolto vapors,_" He scowled, "To heal the bleeding in her lungs, and program the droids with directives that sentients would not be able to carry out as soon as the Sith are here."

"What directives?"

The Jedi first set up an apparatus to evaporate kolto and mix it with the oxygen tank. Adel's kolto tank had become faintly pink, due to the consistent bleeding. It was late in the evening when Bao-Dur finally came up with a list of directives. In the room, Adel was faintly illuminated by a nightlight as the kolto supply was heated. The effect was instantaneous; there was no more bleeding for an hour.

"This is only a temporary solution; kolto only slows it down, unfortunately, doesn't halt it entirely or reverse it. We need the flowers, so we can't leave Telos. However, we can wait around on the same planet, as long as the Sith do not find us. Atris can mask our Force signatures, so as long as we distract them, we should be able to wait until the flowers are grown."

"And how do we distract them? Do you remember the droids we fought? At best we'd ignore them and at worst we cut them down like butter."

"They monitor transmissions," Was all Bao-Dur said.

Mira's eyes widened. "Bao, you're a genius. Force, if they are sending all these random messages to each other, we can communicate in the midst of it all without detection as well!"

"Then we can program droids to lead Atton and Mical to us," Brianna nodded, "And hopefully they will run enough of a mess that the Sith completely bypass where we are."

"Alright," Mira glanced at Visas for a moment, before turning around, "Tomorrow, Visas and Atris can stay here and watch over Adel. Bao, Brianna, and I can get to programming. Now though, I want dinner, because I'm famished, and I want sleep, because I didn't get any since arriving on this Force-forsaken planet."

They all ended up sleeping in the same room as Adel, something Mira would have found a bit obsessive, except it was not. The light from the tank illuminated the room in a soft glow, and in many ways, Mira felt closer to her Jedi family than she ever had before. It was like having a sleepover, except Adel was in a tank and there was an Atris to contend with instead of Atton or Mical, but it was still nice, with Visas on a cot to one side of her and Brianna on the other, one that was far away from her former mistress. The room hummed as the apparatus heated kolto and the machines thrummed as they monitored Adel's vitals. It was a steady, subdued noise, indicating that everything was alright, at least for now.

When morning came, Adel woke, peering groggily from inside the tank, before smiling at the sight of them. Her Force presence spiked, and they felt a tug at a bond that had been silent for years.

"Hey, girl," Mira pressed her hand against the tank as she looked up at Adel's happy face, much of which was covered by a breathing apparatus, "You recognize us, huh?"

_Mira!_

Despite being very hungry and knowing she had work to do, the former bounty hunter had a hard time tearing herself away. "Hey girl," She said again, feeling a little choked with emotion, "We all thought we'd never see you again, honey. I can't tell you how glad we are to see you."

Adel's face pinched a little in pain, but her eyes lost none of its happy spark. She appeared to reach out toward her, but her knuckles banged against the transparent barrier. So close, yet so far away.

Behind Mira, Brianna and Bao-Dur edged closer.

"Adel," Brianna's voice was a little hoarse with emotion.

"We have to go, sweetie," Mira said to Adel, uncertain whether the woman understood her or not, "But we'll be back, alright? Just relax and stay calm and we'll be back before you know it. There is so much to tell you, so many things…we have to catch up, girl."

The Force bond surged and suddenly, Mira could feel Adel's pain. It felt like her blood was slowly eating away at her own flesh, and everything hurt. At the same time, Adel's face contorted a little, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Oh baby," Mira said sympathetically, "Visas and Atris will be here, alright? Hang in there and we'll be back soon. We all love you, remember that, alright?" She reinforced these words with a pulse of affection through the bond. It was difficult to say whether Adel received it or not, for she did not acknowledge it, but the Jedi Exile shut her eyes then and her consciousness dimmed.

Brianna wiped at her eyes. Mira found herself doing the same.

"Dang it, we better figure out how to get Atton and Mical away from the Sith." Adel had been hurt before, but never like this. It would be difficult to move her on short notice because of all the equipment, and worst of all, Adel was unable to defend or protect herself. Mira wondered if she had ever been so helpless before, even as a child. _Probably not._

"I'm going to code after breakfast," Bao-Dur announced, "We can all eat first, and then talk to the commander to obtain the droids also. I expect we'll need at least a hundred; better safe than sorry. Ask for a thousand droids and barter down. Then we can get started on programming the droids. "

The plan was sound, and Brianna went away to order food.

"Hopefully," Visas murmured, appearing to look at the tank even though she had no eyes to see, "Atton and Mical won't lead the Sith straight here. I expect they both have a bond with her and it would be harder to mask."

"Some things we'll have to leave to fate," Bao-Dur replied.

The Miraluka nodded grimly._  
_


End file.
